septenus Latin · revision 34003

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la septem}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [sɛpˈteː.nʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [sepˈtɛː.nus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''septēnus''' (feminine septēna, neuter septēnum); first/second-declension numeral^(Wiktionary)

+ The genitive plural is ''septēnum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|septem|-ēnī|t1=seven]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) Wiktionary takes it to come from an earlier ⟨*septemsnos⟩.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from Plautus,^(Köbler 2010) who has a slave boy told to start the games with seven ladlefuls each, from the top.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a distributive, mostly in the plural ''septēnī'', "seven each": Livy has seven iugera of land given to each of the plebs and two bundles of seven books each, and Cicero boys of sixteen and seventeen years.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It also means seven at a time: in Virgil the Athenians must send seven of their children every year, and Juvenal speaks of hating someone seven hours a day.^(OLD 2012) With little distributive force it is simply "seven", of things that form a set: Virgil has a snake drawing seven coils, Ovid a pipe of seven reeds, and Seneca and Propertius the seven mouths of the Nile.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In the singular it means sevenfold, mostly in poetry and post-Augustan prose: Lucan has the sevenfold stream of the Nile, and Statius the seven-mouthed Danube.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Gellius uses ''bis septēnī'' for fourteen.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of seven ladles each.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero in the genitive ''septēnum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of seven children sent each year.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of seven iugera each.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 39–65 AD – Lucan of the sevenfold Nile.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Numeral===

+ # ''(plural)'' [[m|en|seven|alt=Seven]] each, seven apiece; seven at a time.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(plural, with little distributive force)'' Seven, of a set.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(singular, poetic)'' [[m|en|sevenfold|alt=Sevenfold]], repeated seven times.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[septēnārius]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[septem]]

+ * [[septimus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}