triumphus

Forms

triumphus m (genitive triumphī); second declension^[1] Old inscriptions spell it triumpus, a form Cicero and Quintilian call archaic.^[2][3]

Etymology

It comes from the ritual cry ⟨triumpe!⟩.^[2][1] Wiktionary takes the older ⟨triumpus⟩ as borrowed from Etruscan *θriampe, from Ancient Greek θρίαμβος (thríambos, “hymn to Dionysus”),^[1] and Lewis & Short compare the Greek word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler first records it in Plautus.^[4] The Arval Brothers' hymn ends with the cry triumpe.^[1][3]

Semantic evolution

Triumphus is first the cry “triumphe!” itself (Livy: a six-month-old child cried triumphum in the vegetable market).^[2] Its main sense is the procession of a victorious general from the Campus Martius to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, “a triumph”: triumphum agere is “to celebrate a triumph”, with the people defeated in the genitive or an adjective (Cicero: Caesar did not even hold a triumph for Pharsalus).^[2][3][1] There were naval triumphs and triumphs held on the Alban Mount at the general's own cost.^[2] In general it is any victory celebration (Horace), and then “a success, victory” (Cicero: your neighbours took your defeat as their triumph).^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “triumph”.^[5] English triumph comes from it through Old French in the late 14th century, and trump (in cards) is a 1520s alteration of that word.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: triumphum … ēgit.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of the cry triumphe.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – English triumph.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ritual cry “triumphe!”.^[2][1]
2. A triumph, a victorious general's procession to the Capitol.^[2][3][1][5]
3. Any victory celebration.^[2][1]
4. A success, victory.^[2][1]

Related words

• triumphō
• triumphālis
• English triumph
• English trump

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com