Etymologically
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trimus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtriː.mʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtriː.mus][1]

Forms

trīmus (feminine trīma, neuter trīmum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin tri- (“three”) + hiems (“winter”), literally “three winters old”, like bīmus “two years old”.[2][1] De Vaan explains that these numeral compounds keep the double zero grade of the word for winter, Proto-Italic *-χim-o- (“so many winters old”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵhim-ós (“winter”).[3] Cognates of hiems include Old Irish gaim (“winter”), Hittite gimm- (“winter”) and Sanskrit हिमा (hímā-, “winter”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Plautus,[4] where in the Rudens a father speaks of a daughter lost to him at three years old (filia, trima quae periit mihi).[5]

Semantic evolution

It means three years old, of children, as in Horace's trimus, a child of three, and Velleius, and of animals such as cows, foals, mares, goats and pigs in Varro, Horace, Petronius and the Vulgate;[5][6] Pliny the Elder uses it of a tree.[5][6] Varro has a trimo and a trima, from the age of three, of breeding livestock.[2] In the jurists trima die means at the end of three years, a period for payment.[2][6] Medieval writers in Britain still use it, also as a noun, of a child of three.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a daughter lost at the age of three.[5][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of cattle and foals.[2][5][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a child of three.[5][4]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian uses trima die of a payment due at the end of three years.[2][4]
  • Medieval Latin – William of Malmesbury uses it of a girl barely three years old.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Three years old.[2][5]
  2. a trimo, a trima: from the age of three.[2]
  3. trima die: at the end of three years.[2][6]

Word family

  • trīmātus
  • trīmulus

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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b 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