femur Latin · revision 32271

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈfɛ.mʊr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈfɛː.mur]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''femur''' ''n'' (genitive feminis or femoris); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Apuleius has a nominative ''femus'' and Ampelius ''femen''.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)

+ The oblique cases are usually ''feminis'' etc., less often ''femoris'', as in Cicero and Ovid.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is unknown.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)^(Etymonline) De Vaan calls it an isolated r/n-stem, which must be an archaic formation; he notes Steinbauer's derivation from [[ine-pro|*dʰen-ur|t=bow]], unproblematic in meaning but without phonetic support.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) De Saussure compared Sanskrit words for the buttocks and a part of the body.^(TLL) Isidore explained the name from [[m|la|fēmina|t=woman]], because in that part the male sex differs from the woman.^(TLL)^(Isidore)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008) whose ''Pseudolus'' speaks of what the upper thighs support.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the thigh of a human being, and the corresponding part of animals, as Plautus' lame asses whose hooves were worn down to the thighs.^(OLD 2012) Döderlein distinguishes [[coxa]], the hip, from ''femur'', the part below the hip.^(Döderlein 1874) Pliny the Elder names a plant ''femur būbulum'', and Vitruvius uses it in architecture of the flat bands of a triglyph.^(OLD 2012) Wiktionary adds the figurative sense loins.^(Wiktionary) Church Latin glosses it thigh, loins.^(Stelten 1995) English [[m|en|femur]] was first an architectural term (1560s) and means the thighbone from 1799.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of human and animal thighs.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of a band of a triglyph.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a plant named after it.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1560s – English [[m|en|femur]] is borrowed as an architectural term.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|thigh]]; the thighbone.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The thigh of an animal.^(OLD 2012)

+ # Figuratively, the [[m|en|loins]].^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # In ''femur būbulum'', an unidentified plant.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(architecture)'' A flat vertical band on a [[m|en|triglyph]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[feminālia]]

+ * [[femorāle]]

+ * [[femorālis]]

+ * [[interfemus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[coxa]]

+ * [[en|femur]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}