cimex

See also: Cimex

English

Wikispecies

Cimex lectularius

Etymology

From the genus name Cimex, from Latin cīmex (“bug”). Doublet of chinch.

Noun

cimex (plural cimices)

1. Any member of the genus Cimex, especially the bedbug.
   • 1855, Henry G Dalton, The history of British Guiana:

     Some of these cimices are extremely pretty, but if handled emit their disagreeable perfume. I have met with about a dozen species of these bugs.

   • 1967, Merritt E Lawlis, Elizabethan prose fiction:

     There was a poor fellow during my remainder there that, for a new trick he had invented of killing cimices and scorpions, had his mountebank banner hung up...

Latin

Etymology

Unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkiː.meks/, [ˈkiːmɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃi.meks/, [ˈt͡ʃiːmeks]

Noun

cīmex m (genitive cīmicis); third declension

1. bug
2. bedbug

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cīmex	cīmicēs
Genitive	cīmicis	cīmicum
Dative	cīmicī	cīmicibus
Accusative	cīmicem	cīmicēs
Ablative	cīmice	cīmicibus
Vocative	cīmex	cīmicēs

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Romanian: cince
• Dalmatian:
  • cinco
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: cimice
  • Neapolitan: pimmece
  • Sicilian: cimicia
• Padanian:
  • Emilian: samze, semze ⇒ semza, simza, sümesa
  • Ligurian: scimixa, scixima
  • Lombard: simes, sumas, sisme, sùmec, sumèc, sìmec ⇒ sumèga, simèga
  • Piedmontese: sims, simis, simes, sums
  • Romagnol: semze, semz ⇒ semza
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: címeu
  • Occitan: címec, cimèc, cìmet, cime, cimze, cindre, cimi, cime, çumi
• Ibero-Romance: f
  • Mozarabic: *činče (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Spanish: çisme
    • Spanish: chisme
  • Portuguese: chisme
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: chìmighe
• Borrowings:
• → Albanian: qimqë
• → Basque: zimitz
• → English: cimex
• → Esperanto: cimo
• → Translingual: Cimex

References

• “cimex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cimex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cimex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.