somnium

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *swopnjom, derived from the root of somnus (“sleep”); possibly inherited from Proto-Indo-European *swópniom, from the root *swep- (“to sleep”).

Cognate with Sanskrit स्वप्न्यम् (svápnyam, “vision in a dream”), Lithuanian sapnỹs (“sleep, dream”), Old Church Slavonic съниѥ (sŭnije, “dream”), and Tocharian B sänmetse (“in a trance”).

By surface analysis, somn(us) (“sleep”) +‎ -ium (nominal derivational suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈsom.ni.um/, [ˈs̠ɔmniʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsom.ni.um/, [ˈsɔmnium]

Noun

somnium n (genitive somniī or somnī); second declension

1. dream, vision
2. fantasy, daydream

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	somnium	somnia
Genitive	somniī somnī1	somniōrum
Dative	somniō	somniīs
Accusative	somnium	somnia
Ablative	somniō	somniīs
Vocative	somnium	somnia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• somniālis
• somniāliter
• somniātor
• somniō

Related terms

• somniculōsē
• somniculōsus
• somnifer
• somnificus
• somniger
• somniōsus
• somnulentia
• somnulentus
• somnus

Descendants

• Old Catalan: somni
  • Catalan: somni, sòmit, somi
• Franco-Provençal: sonjo
• Friulian: sium
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: suañu, sueñu
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: sonho
    • Galician: soño
    • Portuguese: sonho
  • Old Spanish: suenno
    • Ladino: esfuenyo, esuenyo
    • Spanish: sueño
• Istriot: sugno
• Italian: sogno
• Ligurian: séunno
• Occitan: sòmi
• Old French: songe
  • French: songe
• Piedmontese: seugn
• Romansch: siemi, semi, sömmi
• Sardinian: sónniu, sonnu
• Sicilian: sonnu, suonnu

Further reading

• “somnium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “somnium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• somnium 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)
• somnium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • my dream is coming true: somnium verum evādit (Div. 2. 53. 108)
    
  • to explain a dream: somnium interpretari
    
  • an interpreter of dreams: somniorum interpres, coniector