septimus

Forms

septimus (feminine septima, neuter septimum); first/second-declension numeral^[1] An older spelling is septumus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *septmo- (“seventh”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *septm-ó- (“seventh”), the ordinal of *septḿ̥ (“seven”);^[4][1] the OLD analyses it as septem (“seven”) and the suffix ⟨-imus⟩.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit सप्तम (saptamá-) and Old Church Slavonic седмъ (sedmŭ).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Naevius as its first author.^[4] Plautus has mense septumō, “in the seventh month”, in the Amphitruo, and a house “the seventh from the gate” in the Pseudolus.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It is the ordinal “seventh”, and pars septima is a seventh part, as in the land surveyors.^[2][3] As a name, Septimus was a rare praenomen and a cognomen.^[1]

In medieval Latin septimus or septima was the seventh day after a death and the mass said for the dead on that day.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius.^[4][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the seventh month.^[3][6]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Seventh.^[2][1][7]
2. pars septima, a seventh part.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin, noun) The seventh day after a death; the requiem mass of that day.^[5]

Related words

• septem
• September

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson