Etymologically
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occumbo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔkˈkʊm.boː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [okˈkum.bo][1]

Forms

occumbō (present infinitive occumbere, perfect active occubuī, supine occubitum); third conjugation[1] Also spelled obcumbō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + *cumbō (“to lie down”), a stem related to cubō (“to lie”).[2][1][3] The TLL notes that ⟨*cumbere⟩ survives only in compounds such as accumbō and dēcumbō, and that it seems to have expressed the action of lying down, while cubō expressed the state.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius has it first, of the fall of old Priam, cum veter occubuit Priamus sub Marte Pelasgo.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Its classical sense is to fall dying, to meet one's death, alone or with mortem, mortī or morte:[2][3] Cicero writes that he would either have fallen honourably or be living as a victor, and speaks of dying for one's country, pro patriā mortem occumbere, where the manuscripts waver between mortem and morte.[3] Livy has dying for the republic, Virgil certae mortī and Ovid necī, and Suetonius dying for liberty and in battle.[5][3] In late Latin it is used of heavenly bodies, to set: Justin has a comet rising and setting, and the Vulgate the setting sun.[3][5] Church Latin has “fall, fall down, go down”.[6]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius, of the fall of Priam.[3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of dying for one's country.[3][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a certain death.[5][7]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of the setting sun.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To fall dying, meet one's death, perish; with mortem or mortī, to meet death.[2][3][1]
  2. (Late Latin) Of heavenly bodies, to set.[3][5]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To fall, go down.[6]

Word family

  • occubitus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de