cubitum

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.bi.tum/, [ˈkʊbɪt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.bi.tum/, [ˈkuːbit̪um]

Etymology 1

Neuter substantive use of the perfect passive participle of cubō (“lie down, recline”).

Alternative forms

• cubitus

Noun

cubitum n (genitive cubitī); second declension

1. elbow
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.690-691:

     Ter sēsē attollēns cubitōque adnīxa levāvit,
     ter revolūta torō est [...].

     Lifting herself three times, [Dido] had tried to raise upon her elbow, and thrice she had rolled back upon the bed [...].
     (Fratantuono and Smith [2022], pg. 916: “The only elbow in Virgil: another graphic detail as the poet continues his emphasis on the physical.”)

2. cubit (measure)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cubitum	cubita
Genitive	cubitī	cubitōrum
Dative	cubitō	cubitīs
Accusative	cubitum	cubita
Ablative	cubitō	cubitīs
Vocative	cubitum	cubita

Derived terms

• cubitālis

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: cot, cotu
  • Romanian: cot
• Italo-Romance:
  • Neapolitan: gùveto, vute, ute, viute, júvete
  • Old Italian: gombito
    • Italian: gomito
  • Sicilian: gùvitu
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: gòmet, gåmmt, gånbdt, gòmat
    • Lombard: gombed
    • Romansch: cumbel, cundun
  • Friulian: comedon
  • Istriot: cumio
  • Ladin: cumedon
  • Venetian: gùmio, gòmio, gòmbio, comio
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: codo
  • Old French: coute, code, cote, cute
    • French: coude
      • Haitian Creole: koud
    • Norman: coute, kut
    • Walloon: keute
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: *coude, colde, coldo
    • Catalan: colze, colzo, cotze
  • Occitan: coide, cobde
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: coudo
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: coldu, codu
    • Leonese: coldo
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: covedo, côbedo
    • Galician: cóbado, cóbedo, códabo
    • Portuguese: coto, côvado
  • Old Spanish: cobdo
    • Ladino: kovdo
    • Spanish: codo
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: cuidu, cuitu, cúvidu
• Ancient borrowings:
  • → Ancient Greek: κύβιτον (kúbiton)
  • → Proto-Albanian: *kuβət
    • Albanian: kut
• Later borrowings:
  • → Catalan: cúbit
  • → French: cubitus
  • → Galician: cúbito
  • → Italian: cubito
  • → Middle English: cubite, cubet, cubit, cubyte
    • English: cubit
    • Scots: cubit (obsolete)
  • → Portuguese: cúbito
  • → Romanian: cubitus
  • → Spanish: cúbito

Etymology 2

Verb

cubitum

1. accusative supine of cubō

References

• “cubitum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cubitum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cubitum 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 go to bed: cubitum ire