plumbeus

Forms

plumbeus (feminine plumbea, neuter plumbeum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin plumbum (“lead”) + -eus.^[2][3][1] The origin of plumbum is uncertain.^[4] De Vaan, following Beekes, rejects a link with Ancient Greek μόλιβδος (mólibdos, “lead”) and sets it rather beside the Celtic word seen in Old Irish lúaide (“lead”); since that cannot account for the Latin form, he thinks the word for lead may be a loan from another language, and mentions a Berber word for lead that may have the same source.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it from Plautus,^[4][5] who uses it figuratively: si quid peccatumst, plumbeas iras gerunt, “if you do wrong, their anger is like lead”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is made of lead: Cato has a leaden cauldron and leaden vessels, Lucretius the leaden sling-shot that grows hot in flight, and Tacitus the name of Germanicus engraved on lead tablets.^[2] Plautus and Martial speak of base leaden coins, and Pliny the Elder of a leaden colour of the body.^[2] Because lead is soft and blunt, Cicero speaks of being killed with a leaden sword and exclaims o plumbeum pugionem!, “what a leaden dagger!”.^[2]

From the qualities of lead it came to mean heavy and oppressive, as Horace's leaden south wind; cheap and worthless, as Martial's leaden wine; and dull or stupid, as Terence's asinus plumbeus, Cicero's “we are dull in natural science”, and Suetonius' man with a face of iron and a heart of lead.^[2] Prudentius has blows from a scourge weighted with lead.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of leaden coins and of heavy anger.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato, of a leaden cauldron.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, of a dull fool.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a blunt dagger and of dullness.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of the oppressive south wind.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of lead, leaden.^[2][6][1]
2. Of lead colour.^[2][1]
3. Blunt, ineffective.^[2][1]
4. Heavy, oppressive.^[2][1]
5. Cheap, worthless.^[2][1]
6. Dull, stupid, insensitive.^[2][1]
7. (as a noun, masculine) A leaden coin;^[2] (neuter) a leaden vessel.^[2]

Related words

• plumbāgō
• plumbārius
• plumbātūra
• plumbō
• plumbōsus
• plumbum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press