Etymologically
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plumbeus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɫʊm.be.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈplum.be.us][1]

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]
  • 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