undecimus

Forms

ūndecimus (feminine ūndecima, neuter ūndecimum); first/second-declension numeral^[1] It is also spelled undecumus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ūndecim (“eleven”), with the ending of decimus (“tenth”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan explains the numeral as made of the words for one and ten.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,^[3] who has it of a year in the Eclogues.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means eleventh:^[2][5] Livy has the eleventh legion, Pliny the Elder the eleventh day, and Velleius Paterculus a man eleventh in descent from Hercules.^[5][6] As a feminine noun it is an eleventh part, in Frontinus and the jurist Maecianus, or the eleventh hour, in a letter of Marcus Aurelius to Fronto.^[2][6] Augustus uses the neuter for "the eleventh time" of his consulship.^[2] The land surveyors have the vulgar prīmus et decimus instead.^[6] Medieval British writers use the ablative for "in the eleventh place" and the eleventh hour of the parable in Matthew.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a year.^[5][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of the eleventh legion.^[5][6]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus of descent from Hercules.^[6]
• 100–170 AD – In Fronto's letters, the eleventh hour of the night.^[2][6]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Eleventh.^[2][5][1][8]
2. (feminine as noun) An eleventh part; the eleventh hour.^[2][6][7]
3. (neuter as adverb) For the eleventh time.^[2]

Related words

• ūndecim
• decimus
• ūnus

References

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