cucumis
See also: Cucumis
Latin
Etymology 1
A wanderwort[1] likely ultimately from Sumerian 𒄾 (ukuš2, “cucumber”) or an unidentified pre-Indo-European Mediterranean substrate language; see Arabic قِثَّاء (qiṯṯāʔ, “snake melon”), as well as Ancient Greek σῐκῠ́ᾱ (sĭkŭ́ā, “bottle gourd”). Compare especially Ancient Greek κύκυον (kúkuon), κυκύϊζα (kukúïza, “a type of sweet round gourd”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈkʊ.kʊ.mɪs]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈkuː.ku.mis]
Noun
cucumis m (genitive cucumeris or cucumis); third declension
- cucumber, melon: any variety of the species Cucumis melo (true melons)
- Cucumis melo var. flexuosus: the preferred type in Roman Italy, today known as the Armenian cucumber, snake melon or vegetable melon
- any other variety of Cucumis melo
- Citrullus lanatus: watermelon
- Ecballium elaterium: squirting cucumber (usually with an epithet like anguīnus or errāticus)
- sea cucumber
- (Medieval Latin, New Latin) Cucumis sativus: garden cucumber
- (New Latin) the genus Cucumis
Usage notes
- Cucumerēs (cucumbers) reaching a certain large size, so that the rind could fit over a child's head, were called pepones (pumpkins).
- The species Cucumis sativus was unknown to the Romans. The name itself with the epithet satīvus meant "the cultivated kind of cucumber" and referred to Cucumis melo (or to Citrullus lanatus).
Declension
Third-declension noun (imparisyllabic non-i-stem or i-stem, accusative singular in -im, ablative singular in -ī; two different stems).
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | cucumis | cucumerēs cucumēs |
| genitive | cucumeris cucumis |
cucumerum cucumium |
| dative | cucumerī cucumī |
cucumeribus cucumibus |
| accusative | cucumerem cucumim |
cucumerēs cucumēs cucumīs |
| ablative | cucumere cucumī |
cucumeribus cucumibus |
| vocative | cucumis | cucumerēs cucumēs |
Derived terms
Descendants
- Insular Romance:
- Sardinian: cogúmbiu, cucúmene, cugúmbiri, cugúmbiu, cugúmene, cugúmere, cugúmeri, cugúmeru, cugùmine, cugúmini, cugúmiu, cugúmmaru, cugúrumu
- Italo-Dalmatian:
- Rhaeto-Romance:
- Gallo-Italic:
- Emilian: cucümar, cucòmbar, cheumar, cumar, gombar
- Gallo-Italic of Sicily: cocombar
- Ligurian: chighéumou, chigèumori, cughéumai, chigèummo
- Lombard: cucumer, cucumro, cocomber, chicumro (plural "chicumbri")
- Piedmontese: cucumer, cocom, cocomo, cocomber, chëcchëmmo, cocómber, cocòmer, cachëmo
- Romagnol: cómar
- Northern Gallo-Romance:
- Old French: cocombre (see there for further descendants)
- Southern Gallo-Romance:
- Ibero-Romance:
- Borrowings:
- → Middle High German: cucumer
- Alemannic German: Gugummere, Guggummere
- Bavarian: Gugumer
- German: Cucumer m (obsolete), Kukumer f
- → Slovene: kúmara, kukumər, kukumra
- Palatine German: Kukumer, Kukummer, Gugummer, Gegummere, Gummere
- South Hessian: Kummere, Gummere
- → Translingual: Cucumis
- → Welsh: cucumer
- → Middle High German: cucumer
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈkʊ.kʊ.miːs]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈkuː.ku.mis]
Noun
cucumīs
- dative/ablative plural of cucuma (“kettle”)
References
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “cucumis, -eris”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 148
Further reading
- “cucumis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “cucumis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “cucumis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “ukuš”, in The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary[1], University of Pennsylvania, 2006
- Janick, Jules; Paris, Harry S.; Parrish, David C. (2007), “The Cucurbits of Mediterranean Antiquity: Identification of Taxa from Ancient Images and Descriptions”, in Annals of Botany[2], volume 100, number 7, , pages 1441–1457