libum

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *leiβom, *loiβom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leybʰ-om, *h₂loybʰ-om, from *h₂leybʰ- (“(anointing) grease”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀλείφω (aleíphō, “to anoint”), Ancient Greek ἄλειφᾰρ (áleiphar, “unguent”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.bum/, [ˈlʲiːbʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈli.bum/, [ˈliːbum]

Noun

lībum n (genitive lībī); second declension

1. a cake or a pancake, made of meal and milk or oil and spread with honey, such as was offered to the gods, especially on a birthday
   • 8 CE, Ovid, 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 ‘‘libamen’’ (libation) and a ‘‘libum’’ (cake). For another likely link to Liber’s name – and the Latin ‘‘libo’’ – see also the Greek λείβω, ‘‘to pour.’’)

2. libum natale: birthday cake

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lībum	lība
Genitive	lībī	lībōrum
Dative	lībō	lībīs
Accusative	lībum	lība
Ablative	lībō	lībīs
Vocative	lībum	lība

Derived terms

• lībācunculus
• lībāmen
• lībāmentum
• lībātiō
• lībātor
• lībātōrium
• lībō

References

• “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’s 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
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 339