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remex

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word remex

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (rēmus,agō)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈreː.mɛks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈrɛː.meks][1]

Forms

rēmex m (genitive rēmigis); third declension[1] Symmachus has a genitive plural rēmigium.[2]

Etymology

It is a compound of rēmus (“oar”) and the root of agō (“to drive”), Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-, “one who drives the oar”.[3][4][2][5] De Vaan traces ⟨rēmus⟩ to Proto-Italic *rēsmo- (“oar”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁-smo- (“oar”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἐρετμόν (eretmón, “oar”), Lithuanian ìrklas (“oar”) and Old English rōwan (“to row”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author,[5] with the Poenulus and Mercator.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is an oarsman or rower, as in Plautus and Cicero, and in the singular is also used collectively for a ship's crew of rowers, as Virgil's Mnestheus who drives the swift Pristis “with a keen crew”, and Livy's state that could provide neither rowers to fill the fleet nor pay.[3][2]

Church Latin glosses it “rower”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a crew of rowers.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An oarsman, rower, (collective singular) a crew of rowers.[3][1][7]

Word family

  • rēmigium
  • rēmigō
  • sēmirēmex

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Remex.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/remex. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·