Etymologically
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semus

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Forms

sēmus (feminine sēma, neuter sēmum); first/second-declension adjective[1][2] Niermeyer and Köbler also give the spelling sīmus.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmi- (“half”), according to Köbler and Pokorny, who calls it a late adjective.[4][5] Georges and Gaffiot connect it with sēmis (“half”).[1][2] The prefix goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sēm-i (“in one”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boethius uses it in his treatise on music for something only half done.[1][7][4] The Latin translation of the Shepherd of Hermas has it of half-full vessels, and Eugenius of Toledo of an unfinished little work (opusculum sēmum).[1][2]

Semantic evolution

In Medieval Latin it meant half full, incomplete or unfinished, and also misshapen, and of land uncultivated or waste.[3] It appears in the Lombard laws and in the formulae.[8][4] Du Cange quotes Huguccio's gloss of it as “imperfect, not full”.[9] Conte connects it with Italian scemare (“to diminish”).[7]

Timeline

  • first quarter of the 6th century AD – Boethius uses it for “only half”.[1][7][4]
  • c. 1250 – A masculine noun sēmus, perhaps “bastard”, is recorded in Britain.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Half-full, half empty.[1][3]
  2. Only half, incomplete, unfinished.[1][2][3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Misshapen, deformed.[3]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Of land: uncultivated, waste.[3]

Usage notes

A proper name Sēmus is unrelated: Gaffiot gives it from inscriptions as another form of Sēmō,[2] and Wiktionary as a form of Sēm, the biblical Shem.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  2. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Liber exquisiti xenii: Lexikon frühmittelalterlicher Rechtswörter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org