Etymologically
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undecimus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [uːnˈdɛ.kɪ.mʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [unˈdɛː.t͡ʃi.mus][1]

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]

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