lumbricus Latin · revision 35686

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

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ɫʊmˈbriː.kʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [lumˈbriː.kus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''lumbrīcus''' ''m'' (genitive lumbrīcī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is uncertain.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(TLL) The suffix recalls [[umbilicus|alt=umbilīcus]] “navel”, also in the lower belly, and [[formica|alt=formīca]] “ant”, another small creature.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Wiktionary connects it with [[lumbus]] “loin”.^(Wiktionary) Walde and Hofmann derived it, like that noun, from a root [[ine-pro|*lndʰ-]], but de Vaan objects that a voiced aspirate after a nasal gives a stop in all the Italic languages.^(de Vaan 2008) Köbler mentions a derivation from [[m|ine-pro|*sleidʰ-|t=slippery; to slide]].^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is found from Plautus on,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) meaning an [[m|en|earthworm]]: in the ''Bacchides'' a character says ''ab transenna hic turdus lumbricum petit'', “here the thrush goes for the worm on the snare”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ De Vaan points out that “earthworm” is the older and more frequent sense; when Cato prescribes a remedy for ''taeniae et lumbrici'', the word is used figuratively for worms in the intestines.^(de Vaan 2008) That sense is common in Columella, Pliny the Elder and the medical writer Caelius Aurelianus,^(Lewis & Short 1879) and Pliny remarks that worms have no eyes.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for an earthworm.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for intestinal worms.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella uses it for intestinal worms of animals.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder notes that worms have no eyes.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|earthworm]].^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)

+ # An intestinal [[m|en|worm]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[lumbus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}