rheuma

Forms

rheuma n (genitive rheumatis); third declension^[1] Isidore of Seville has a first-declension feminine reuma, genitive reumae.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥεῦμα (rheûma, “current, stream”),^[1][5][4] a noun of ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”).^[6] Köbler traces the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *sreu- (“to flow”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ambrose (c. 340–397 AD) uses it in his Hexaemeron for a current of the sea.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Vegetius uses it for the tide, which he says is called rheuma.^[8][2][9] Jerome has it in his letters for a catarrh,^[3][8] as Caelius Aurelianus does;^[2] DynaMorphPro dates the loan to Late and early Medieval Latin and names Theodorus Priscianus among its first users.^[4]

In British medieval Latin it was a current of water, a swell of the sea and the tide: Bede says that the island of Farne is cut off twice a day by the tide of the ocean, “which the Greeks call reuma”.^[5] English rheum (late 14th century) came from Old French reume and directly from the Latin.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it for a current of the sea.^[2][7]
• c. 383–420 AD – Jerome uses it for a catarrh.^[3][8][7]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it for the tide.^[8][7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville has the feminine form reuma.^[2][3][7]
• early 8th century AD – Bede uses it of the tide around Farne.^[5][7]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as rheum.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A current, a flow of the sea; the tide.^[8][2][5]
2. A catarrh, a flow of rheum.^[8][2][3]

Word family

• rheumaticus
• rheumatizo
• rheumatismus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c Gardani, Francesco; Pellegrini, Matteo et al. (2026), DynaMorphPro: loanwords, conversions and class shifts in Latin and Old Italian, CIRCSE / LiLa, github.com/CIRCSE/DynaMorphPro (CC BY-SA 4.0)
5. ^ a b c d 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
6. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com