septimanus

Forms

septimānus (feminine septimāna, neuter septimānum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The spelling septumānus appears in very good manuscripts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin septimus + -ānus, from septimus (“seventh”).^[4][1] Through septem (“seven”) it goes back to Proto-Italic *septmo- and Proto-Indo-European *s(e)ptm-ó- (“seventh”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro, in De lingua Latina (6.27), uses it of the Nones that fell on the seventh day of the month (in March, May, July and October), as against those on the fifth, called quintanae.^[6][4][3]

Semantic evolution

Beside the calendar use, it described a child born in the seventh month: Arnobius speaks of such a birth, and Ambrose calls a person septimanus in this sense.^[2][7] As a masculine plural noun, septimani were the soldiers of the seventh legion, in Mela, Pliny the Elder and Tacitus.^[4][6][2]

The feminine, used as a noun, became the Late Latin word for a week, septimana, found in the Theodosian Code and in the Vulgate, where dies septimanarum is the Jewish Feast of Weeks.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of Nones falling on the seventh day of the month.^[4][3]
• AD 43/44 – Mela names Beterrae as the town of the septimani, the soldiers of the seventh legion.^[4][3]
• AD 23/24–79 – Pliny the Elder also has septimani for these soldiers.^[6][3]
• AD 297–310 – Arnobius uses it of a birth in the seventh month.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the number seven; of a festival, falling on the seventh day of the month: nōnae septimānae.^[4][6]
2. Born in the seventh month of pregnancy.^[2][7]

Noun

1. (masculine plural, septimānī) The soldiers of the seventh legion.^[4][6]

Usage notes

The feminine noun septimāna “week” has its own entry, septimana.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.