somnus

Forms

somnus m (genitive somnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *swepnos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *swépnos (“sleep”), which regularly became ⟨somnus⟩ through ⟨*swopno-⟩; de Vaan, in view of the Celtic forms, slightly prefers a Proto-Italic ⟨*swopno-⟩.^[2][1][3] He takes the PIE noun to be a thematized form of the r/n-stem seen in sopor, from the root *swep- (“to sleep”).^[2][4]

Cognate with Old Irish súan (“sleep”), Welsh hun, Sanskrit स्वप्न (svápna, “sleep, dream”), Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos), Lithuanian sapnas (“dream”), Old Church Slavonic сънъ (sŭnŭ, “sleep”), Old Norse svefn and Hittite šupp- (“to sleep”).^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[2] Ennius, in the first book of the Annals, has somnō lēnī placidōque revinctus, “bound in gentle, peaceful sleep”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Somnus is sleep, often in the plural with the same sense, and then sleepiness and, figuratively, sloth, inactivity (Cicero mocks the somnus of Lentulus).^[3][5][1] Figuratively it can mean death.^[1] Döderlein says somnus is the ordinary word, sopor the poetic one, which in prose means something that brings on sleep.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “sleep”.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius: somnō lēnī placidōque revinctus.^[3][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: et vāpulandō et somnō pereō, “I'm dying from beatings and sleepiness”.^[3][4]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius: sēgnīs somnō et tarditūdine, “sluggish with sleep and slowness”.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero says he need not fear the somnus of Publius Lentulus, his sloth.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. sleep, slumber.^[3][5][1][7]
2. Sleepiness, drowsiness.^[3][1]
3. Sloth, idleness, inactivity.^[3][1]
4. (figurative) Death.^[1]

Word family

• dēsomnis
• exsomnis
• īnsomnis
• sēmisomnus
• somniculus
• somnifer
• somnificus
• somniger
• somniosus
• somnium
• somnolentus
• somnurnus

Related words

• sōpiō
• sopor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson