rumen

Forms

rūmen n (genitive rūminis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *roug(s)mən, of somewhat disputed origin.^[1] De Vaan lists it with ērūgō (“to belch”) and rūctō (“to belch”), whose root goes back to Proto-Italic *roug-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁reuǵ-e/o- (“to belch”), with the noun suffix -men.^[2][1] The OLD instead compares a Sanskrit word for chewing the cud.^[3]

The root's cognates include Ancient Greek ἐρεύγομαι (ereúgomai, “to belch out, vomit”), Lithuanian ráugėti (“to belch”) and Old English rocettan (“to belch”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first author is Pomponius, whose Atellan farces are quoted by Nonius with the line dum sit, rumen qui impleam (“as long as there is something to fill my gullet”).^[2][4] Köbler's earliest source is Varro.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Ancient scholars explained it as the part of the neck through which food is swallowed: Festus says that rumare was formed from it, the verb then said as rūmināre.^[4] Servius derived ruminatio from rumen, and Isidore located it next to the gullet; for him, beasts that chew their food again are said to ruminate because of it.^[4][6]

The word named the throat and gullet,^[4][1] and in animals the enlargement where food is stored, the first stomach of a ruminant, also applied to the gullet or stomach of people.^[3] English took it over in 1728 for the first stomach of a ruminant.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro is the earliest source Köbler gives.^[5]
• 2nd half of the 2nd century AD – Festus explains it as the part of the neck that swallows food.^[4][5]
• c. 400 AD – Servius derives ruminatio from it.^[4][5]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Nonius quotes it from Pomponius.^[4][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville places it next to the gullet.^[6][5]
• 1728 – English borrows rumen for the first stomach of a ruminant.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The throat, gullet.^[4][1]
2. The first stomach of a ruminant, where food is stored before it is chewed again.^[3][1]
3. The gullet or stomach of a person.^[3]

Word family

• rūminālis
• rūmō
• rūminātiō
• rūminō
• rūminor

Related words

• English rumen

Usage notes

L&S records a by-form rūma, of doubtful reading in Arnobius and given by Servius.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com