palmus

Forms

palmus m (genitive palmī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin palma (“palm of the hand”), a masculine form beside it.^[2][3][4] That noun goes back to Proto-Italic *palamā- and Proto-Indo-European *plh₂-em-h₂- (“flat, wide”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek παλάμη (palámē, “palm of the hand”), Old Irish lám, Welsh llaw, Old High German folma (“hand”) and Old English folm (“flat hand”).^[4] De Vaan notes that a borrowing of the feminine from Greek, which some have assumed, would not explain the masculine.^[4] Wiktionary instead derives it straight from *pl̥h₂m- (“palm of the hand”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first to use it, in his work on agriculture, as a measure: discs a foot and a palm thick, crassōs pedem et palmum.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius uses it for the palm of the hand itself.^[2][6] As a measure it had two values: the Greek palm of four fingers' breadth, a quarter of a foot, and the Roman span of twelve.^[7][3] Varro, Columella and Pliny the Elder use it for heights and distances.^[2] Pliny reports that the ancient Greeks called the palm dōron, and that gifts were called dōra because they were given by hand.^[3] Jerome notes that the Greek word for the measure is more correctly palaestēs, a sixth of a cubit.^[8]

Medieval writers used it for the hand and for the span;^[9] Bede writes of a body found longer than its coffin by a palm.^[9] It is the source of Italian palmo.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it as a measure of thickness.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it as a unit of height.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for the palm of the hand.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the height of plants.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The palm of the hand.^[2][3]
2. The width of the palm as a unit of length, four fingers' breadth or a quarter of a foot.^[2][7]
3. A span of twelve fingers' breadth.^[3][7]

Word family

• bipalmis
• bipalmus
• palmipēs

Related words

• palma
• palmāris
• palmula

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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