lemures

See also: lémures and lêmures

English

Etymology

From Latin lemurēs. See lemur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛmjəriːz/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

lemures pl (plural only)

1. (Roman mythology) The spirits or ghosts of the dead, considered as malignant.

   Coordinate term: Lares

   • 1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:

     The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint.

   • 1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VII, in The Last Days of Pompeii. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […]; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC, book IV, page 13:

     So still lay the figure, and so dim was its outline, that any other than Arbaces might have felt a superstitious fear, lest he beheld one of those grim lemures, who, above all other spots, haunted the threshold of the homes they formerly possessed.

Related terms

• lemur
• Lemuria

Further reading

• lemures on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “lemures”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• relumes

Latin

Etymology

According to de Vaan, from a substrate source along with Ancient Greek Λαμία (Lamía), possibly Etruscan or Anatolian. The two words may have existed as a late Proto-Indo-European stem *lem- (“ghost, nocturnal spirit”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈle.mu.reːs/, [ˈɫ̪ɛmʊreːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈle.mu.res/, [ˈlɛːmures]

Noun

lemurēs m pl (genitive lemurum); third declension

1. shades, ghosts of the departed
2. ghosts, spectres

Declension

Third-declension noun, plural only.

Case	Plural
Nominative	lemurēs
Genitive	lemurum
Dative	lemuribus
Accusative	lemurēs
Ablative	lemuribus
Vocative	lemurēs

Descendants

• English: lemur, lemures
• French: lémur, lémure

See also

• phasma

References

• “lemures”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lemures in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “lemures”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “lemures”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• “lemures”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN
• Mallory, J. P., Adams, D. Q. (2006) The Oxford introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European world, Oxford University Press