libum
Latin
Etymology
Disputed.
- According to De Vaan, from either Proto-Italic *leiβom or *loiβom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leybʰ-o-m or *h₂loybʰ-o-m respectively, from *h₂leybʰ- (“(anointing) grease”). If this theory were accepted, then the term would be cognate with Ancient Greek ἀλείφω (aleíphō, “to anoint”), ἄλειφᾰρ (áleiphăr, “unguent”).[1]
- The linguist Roman Garnier alternatively suggests that it is deverbal from lībō.[2]
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈliː.bũː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈliː.bum]
Noun
lībum n (genitive lībī); second declension
- a cake or pancake, made of meal and milk or oil and spread with honey, such as was offered to the gods, especially on a birthday
- lībum nātāle ― birthday cake
- 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 3.733-734:
- Nōmine ab auctōris dūcunt lībāmina nōmen
lībaque, quod sānctīs pars datur inde focīs.- Libations and cakes draw their names from the name of their inventor,
because a portion of them is being offered upon the sacred hearths.
(Ovid credits the god Liber, or Bacchus, with the origin of ancient sacred ritual practices, such as offering a lībāmen (“libation”) and a lībum (“cake”). For another likely link to Liber’s name – and the Latin lībō – see also the Greek λείβω (leíbō, “to pour”).)
- Libations and cakes draw their names from the name of their inventor,
- Nōmine ab auctōris dūcunt lībāmina nōmen
Declension
Second-declension noun (neuter).
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | lībum | lība |
| genitive | lībī | lībōrum |
| dative | lībō | lībīs |
| accusative | lībum | lība |
| ablative | lībō | lībīs |
| vocative | lībum | lība |
Derived terms
References
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “lībō, -āre”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 339
- ^ Garnier, Romain; Sagot, Benoît (2017), “A shared substrate between Greek and Italic”, in Indogermanische Forschungen[1], volume 122, number 1, , page 38
- “libum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “libum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "libum", 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)
- “libum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “libum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “libum”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly