sumen

Forms

sūmen n (genitive sūminis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sūgō (“to suck”) + -men, from an older form ⟨*sugs-men⟩.^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *soug(s)mn- (“udder”), from *souge/o- (“to suck”) and Proto-Indo-European *seug-e/o- (“to suck”), and compares Old English sūcan (“to suck”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Plautus on,^[4][5] who lists it in the Curculio among cuts of pork (pernam, abdomen, sumen).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense is a sow's udder, which the Romans ate as a delicacy;^[2][3][6] Plautus, Pliny the Elder and Martial mention it.^[2][3][6] Lucilius applies it to a woman's breast giving milk.^[2][3] By metonymy Juvenal uses it for a sow itself,^[3][6] and Varro reports that the fields of Rosea were called the sumen of Italy, its fattest part.^[6] Medieval writers in Britain still use it of a sow's udder as a delicacy, and also of an internal organ, especially the caul, and of the belly.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus names it among cuts of pork.^[3][4][5]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a woman's breast.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the most fertile land.^[6][5]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it for a sow.^[3][5]
• Medieval Latin – British writers use it of the udder as food and of the caul and belly.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sow's udder, eaten as a delicacy.^[2][3]
2. A woman's breast.^[2][3]
3. (metonymy) A sow.^[3][6]
4. (figurative) The fattest, richest part of something.^[6][3]
5. (Medieval Latin) The caul or another internal organ; the belly.^[7]

Word family

• suminatus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press