Etymologically
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savium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsaː.wi.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsaː.vi.um][1]

Forms

sāvium n (genitive sāviī or sāvī); second declension[1] It is also spelled suāvium.[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is apparently from Latin suāvis (“sweet”) + -ium.[2][4] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Italic *swāwiom, whose first /w/ was lost by dissimilation.[1] De Vaan traces suāvis to Proto-Italic *swādu- (“sweet”) and Proto-Indo-European *sueh₂d-u- (“sweet”), comparing Sanskrit स्वादु (svādú-, “sweet”) and Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús, “sweet”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[5][4] in whose Curculio whoever wants to lie with a woman opens the way with kisses.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a kiss, usually an erotic one, and a term of endearment: in the Cistellaria someone was called “little honey” and “her kiss”.[2] It is also the lips puckered for kissing, as in the Miles Gloriosus.[2][3] Lewis & Short find it mostly before the classical period and especially in Plautus.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of kisses and of puckered lips.[2][5][4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius quotes a poet on a half-open kiss.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A kiss, usually an erotic one;[2][3][1] a term of endearment.[2]
  2. The lips puckered for kissing.[2][3]

Usage notes

Servius, as Lewis & Short report, distinguished three words for a kiss: osculum belongs to religion and ⟨sāvium⟩ to pleasure, and some say that one gives an ⟨ōsculum⟩ to sons, a bāsium to a wife and a ⟨sāvium⟩ to a harlot.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ 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