epulum

Possibly contracted from *edipulum, from edō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɛ.pʊ.ɫũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɛː.pu.lum]

epulum n (genitive epulī); second declension

1. feast, banquet, festive entertainment

   Synonyms: epulae, convīvium, dominium, cōmissātiō, fēsta, daps, alogia

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.78–80:

     “Tū mihi quodcumque hoc rēgnī, tū scēptra Iovemque
     conciliās, tū dās epulīs accumbere dīvum,
     nimbōrumque facīs tempestātumque potentem.”

     “You [win] for me whatsoever sort of kingdom this [is], you secure [for me] a scepter and [favor from] Jupiter, you grant [to me the privilege] to recline at the feasts of the gods, and you confer [on me the] power of clouds and of storms.”
     (King Aeolus speaks with humble respect to Queen Juno; note the word repetition or anaphora: “You…, you…, you…, you….”)

2. (in the plural) dishes, meats.
3. (in the plural, figuratively) food.

The plural form epulae f may be used separately as a plurale tantum.

Second-declension (neuter) noun in the singular; first-declension (feminine) or second-declension (neuter) noun in the plural.

• epulae
• epulāris
• epulō
• epulor

• “epulum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “epulum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "epulum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “epulum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to load the tables with the most exquisite viands: mensas exquisitissimis epulis instruere (Tusc. 5. 21. 62)
    
  • (ambiguous) during dinner; at table: inter cenam, inter epulas
    
  • (ambiguous) to entertain, regale a person: accipere aliquem (bene, copiose, laute, eleganter, regio apparatu, apparatis epulis)
    
• “epulum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers