Etymologically
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sumen

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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