Etymologically
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remigium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [reːˈmɪ.ɡi.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈmiː.d͡ʒi.um][1]

Forms

rēmigium n (genitive rēmigiī or rēmigī); second declension[1] Lucretius has the genitive rēmigī.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin rēmex (“rower”), with the suffix -ium, as the TLL takes it after Leumann; the OLD and Wiktionary derive it from the verb rēmigō (“to row”).[2][3][1] De Vaan lists rēmex among the derivatives of rēmus (“oar”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *rē(s)mo- (“oar”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁-(s)mo- (“oar”).[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐρετμόν (eretmón, “oar”), Lithuanian ìrti (“to row”), Old Irish raïd (“to row”) and Old English rōwan (“to row”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][5] who in the Bacchides says that once they left harbour men followed them with oars.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is the outfit of oars of a ship, and so the rowing itself, as Virgil's rowers who wear out night and day with rowing, and Pliny the Elder's harbour ten days' rowing from a town.[3][6] The poets transfer it to the legs of a swimming horse, as Statius does, and to the wings of a bird.[3] It also means the rowers as a body, a crew, as in Virgil's “he makes up the crew”.[3] Glossaries render it with Ancient Greek κωπηλασία (kōpēlasía, “rowing”).[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of following with oars.[3][4][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of rowing and of a ship's crew.[3][6][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a distance measured in days of rowing.[3][5]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius of a swimming horse's legs.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A ship's outfit of oars, oarage.[3][1]
  2. The action of rowing.[3][6][1]
  3. (poetic) Legs used in swimming; wings.[3]
  4. A crew of rowers.[3][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press