cuminum Latin · revision 33353

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=234–149 BC, Cato}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kʊˈmiː.nũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [kuˈmiː.num]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cumīnum''' ''n'' (genitive cumīnī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''cymīnum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ Late Latin has ''cimīnum'' and ''comīnum''.^(Georges 1913)^(TLL)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|κύμινον|tr=kúminon|t=cumin]].^(OLD 2012)^(Saalfeld 1874)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary) The Greek word is ultimately Semitic;^(Wiktionary) Köbler compares [[akk|kamūnu]].^(Köbler 2010) The grammarian Velius Longus notes that the Latin word renders the Greek one.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL's first examples are in Cato's book on farming, which has roasted cumin.^(TLL) Köbler's first source is Varro.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the plant cumin or its seed, used as a spice and a drug.^(OLD 2012) Cumin was thought to make people pale:^(Lewis & Short 1879) Horace says his imitators would drink bloodless cumin if he happened to be pale, and his commentator Porphyrio explains that cumin dissolved and drunk makes one pale;^(TLL) Persius speaks of the seeds of pale cumin.^(TLL) Petronius has a dish that seemed to lack pepper and cumin, and Pliny the Elder says that those who sow cumin pray that it will not come up.^(TLL) Celsus and Columella use it in remedies,^(TLL) and Apicius uses it for cumin oil.^(Georges 1913)

+

+ It survives in [[m|it|cumino]], [[m|es|comino]] and [[m|fr|cumin]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato, of roasted cumin.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace, of cumin that makes one pale.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, on sowing cumin.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|cumin]], the plant or its seed, used as a [[m|en|spice]] and a drug.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Cumin oil.^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cuminatus]]

+ * [[cumininus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|cumin]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}