simus

Forms

sīmus (feminine sīma, neuter sīmum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σιμός (simós, “snub-nosed”).^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in a tragedy of Livius Andronicus, who lived from 280/260 to before 200 BC:^[3] lascivum Nerei simum pecus, “the playful snub-nosed flock of Nereus”, which Lewis & Short take to be the dolphins.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It was used of noses and of flat-nosed people and animals,^[2][4] and Pliny the Elder mentions the family name Simus.^[4] In medicine Celsus applied it to other parts that are flattened, such as a bone surface.^[2]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus calls the dolphins “snub-nosed”.^[2][3]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a flattened part of a bone.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions the cognomen Simus.^[4][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Snub-nosed, flat-nosed; of a nose, flattened, splayed.^[2][4]
2. Of other projecting parts: flattened.^[2]

Word family

• resīmus
• sīmia
• sīmō
• sīmulus
• subsīmus
• sīmius

Usage notes

Lewis & Short compare the native silus, of the same meaning.^[4]

References

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