nutrimentum

Forms

nūtrīmentum n (genitive nūtrīmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin nūtriō (“to nourish, suckle”) + -mentum.^[2][1][3] Etymonline traces nūtriō to Proto-Indo-European *(s)nau- (“to swim, flow, let flow”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero (81–43 BC) is the first to use it, figuratively, of the nourishment on which eloquence was brought up.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is what feeds and sustains, but it was mostly applied in a transferred way: Virgil calls the dry fuel heaped around a newly kindled fire nūtrīmenta,^[2][5] and the word also named what feeds an emotion.^[2] In the plural it meant the upbringing of a child, as in Suetonius and Apuleius.^[2] Döderlein distinguishes it from alimenta: these help growth, while nūtrīmenta keep a thing alive.^[6]

In Christian Latin it is plain food,^[7] and medieval Latin used it for food and victuals and also for the young of livestock, or cattle.^[8] DMLBS records it for plants, for fuel and in figurative uses.^[9] English borrowed it as nutriment in the early 15th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of eloquence reared on its nourishment.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses nūtrīmenta for the fuel of a fire.^[2][5][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes of the fertile nourishment of the sea.^[2][3]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as nutriment.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Nourishment, that which feeds or sustains; often transferred, as of fuel for a fire or of what feeds a feeling.^[2][5]
2. (plural) Upbringing, nurture of a child.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Food, victuals.^[8][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) The young of livestock; cattle.^[8]

Related words

• alimentum
• English nutriment

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts alimenta, which further growth and development, with nūtrīmenta, which keep a thing going.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press