sementis

Forms

sēmentis f (genitive sēmentis); third declension^[1] The accusative singular is usually sēmentem, but sēmentim occurs in Cato, Cicero and Columella.^[2][3] The ablative is sēmentī or sēmente.^[2] Later Latin also has a neuter sēmentium, with the plurals sēmentia and sēmenta.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmen (“seed”),^[2][5][1] which belongs to serō¹ (“to sow”).^[6] De Vaan, following Leumann, thinks it may have been reshaped from an earlier neuter *sēmentum, and Wiktionary gives the same view as uncertain.^[6][1]

The word for seed goes back to Proto-Italic *sēmn (“seed”) and Proto-Indo-European *seh₁-mn (“seed”), built on the root *seh₁- (“to sow”).^[6] Cognate with Lithuanian sė́ti (“to sow”), Lithuanian sė́menys (“linseed”) and Latvian sẽt (“to sow”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on.^[6][5] In the Menaechmi it appears in a joking threat, hisce ego iam sēmentem in ōre faciam “I'll do some sowing on these faces”, meaning a sound beating.^[2][4] Cato uses it plainly for the sowing of crops, for the sowing season and for the crop that is sown.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was the farmer's word for sowing: sēmentem facere meant to sow,^[4][2] and Caesar has the plural for large sowings.^[4][2] Cicero quotes the proverb ut sēmentem fēceris, ita metēs, “as you sow, so shall you reap”,^[2][4] and uses the word figuratively for the sowing of evils.^[2][4] By metonymy it named the sowing season, usually late autumn, in Cato and Columella,^[2][4] and the seed sown or the young crop, in Ovid, Columella and Gellius.^[2][4]

In later Latin it also took the form of a neuter sēmentium.^[4][1] The Ecclesiastical dictionaries keep the senses of sowing and seed.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in a jest about sowing blows on faces.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for sowing, for seedtime and for the crop.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero quotes the proverb of sowing and reaping.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil advises stretching the sowing to midwinter frosts.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses the plural of young crops.^[2][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine has the neuter plural sēmentia.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Sowing, the sowing of seed;^[2][3] sēmentem facere, to sow.^[4]
2. (figurative) A sowing (of evils and the like).^[2][4]
3. The sowing season, seedtime.^[2][3]
4. That which is sown: the seed, the crop;^[2][4] (plural) young crops.^[2][4]

Word family

• sementifer
• sēmentō
• sementium
• sēmentivus

Related words

• sēmen
• serō¹

Usage notes

The proverb ut sēmentem fēceris, ita metēs (Cicero, De oratore 2.261) corresponds to “as you sow, so shall you reap”.^[2][4]

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 j k l m n o p q r s t u v Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson