cume

Forms

cume m (plural cumes)^[1] In north-eastern Portugal there is also cumio.^[2] Galician has cume and cumio.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin culmen (“ridge of a roof; summit”).^[5][1][6] Houaiss calls it the popular counterpart of a learned borrowing of the same Latin word, and Nascentes thinks it came down by a semi-learned route.^[5][7] The /l/ before /m/ was vocalised and then absorbed by the preceding vowel.^[3] Nascentes mentions an old form Old Galician-Portuguese cuime, and Cortesão's alternative derivation from acūmen (“point”).^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician cume, Asturian cume, Spanish cumbre, Italian colmo and Romanian culme.^[1][2][9] Spanish first has it in Berceo, still in the sense “ridge of a roof”.^[9]

The Latin word is a contracted form of columen (“top, summit”).^[10][11] De Vaan traces both to Proto-Italic *kelamen- and Proto-Indo-European *kelH-men- (“top, summit”), with cognates in Old English holm (“island”) and Old Norse holmr (“small island”).^[11] Wiktionary connects the root with “to rise, be tall”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1265, from the supplement to Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[5] In the medieval Galician documents of Rianxo a cume is the ridge beam of a roof: hũu cume de castaño “a ridge beam of chestnut”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word meant first the ridge of a roof and then a summit, and both senses survive.^[3][12] In Portuguese the summit of a mountain became the main sense: Cardoso glosses cume with Latin fastigium and Bluteau with culmen and cacumen, “the top of a mountain”.^[13][14] Morais already gives the figurative o cume da gloria “the height of glory”.^[15] The roof sense lives on in the regional speech of Portugal, where cume is the ridge beam, the cumeeira.^[5][16] In heraldry it is a rounded mount at the top of a shield.^[5]

Timeline

• 1265 – first record.^[5]
• c. 1430 – cume in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[17]
• 1549 – cume in a private letter.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses cume with Latin fastigium.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives the word from Latin culmen or cacumen.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative o cume da gloria.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The highest point of a mountain or hill; summit, peak, cimo: Levaram seis horas a chegar ao cume.^[5][19][1]
2. (figurative) The height, the apex of something: no cume da fama.^[5][19]
3. (Portugal, regional) The ridge beam of a roof, cumeeira.^[5][16]
4. (heraldry) A rounded mount at the top of a shield.^[5]

Word family

• cumeeira

Related words

• cúlmen
• culminar
• Latin culmen
• Galician cume
• Spanish cumbre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. culmen
3. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. cume
4. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. cume
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cume
6. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. cume
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. cume
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 146
9. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 289
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. culmen
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. culmen
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cume
14. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cume
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 354
16. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. cume
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cume
18. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. cume
19. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cume