promunturium
Latin
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editUnclear.[1] The first element can be identified as the prefix prō-. Although the end of the word resembles the suffix -tōrium, the spelling with -torium seems to postdate that with -turium, and the word scans in Ovid Metamorphoses 15.709 as prōmuntŭrĭumque (per Müller, who rejects the alternative of reading this line with synizesis as prōmuntūr.jumque[2][3]).
The second element is typically considered to be mōns, montis (“mountain”).[1][4] The /u/ could have developed by vowel reduction (which was a regular sound change in non-initial syllables); alternatively, the variation between /o/ and /u/ in this word could be akin to that seen in some other words before a nasal in a closed syllable (even a word-initial syllable) such as frōns/frūns. Lewis and Short (1879) and Gaffiot (1934) favor a derivation from prōmineō (“project, jut out”) (ultimately derived, like mōns, from Proto-Indo-European *men-); however, Ernout and Meillet (1985) consider this difficult.[1] De Vaan, noting that -tōrium is typically affixed to verb bases, proposes an alternative etymology from prōmoneō (“warn”) via contraction of *prōmonetōriom, with the idea that a word meaning "warner" might be used to refer to a "'signpost' in the landscape".[4]
Pronunciation
edit- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /proː.munˈtu.ri.um/, [proːmʊn̪ˈt̪ʊriʊ̃ˑ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /pro.munˈtu.ri.um/, [promun̪ˈt̪uːrium]
Noun
editprōmunturium n (genitive prōmunturiī or prōmunturī); second declension
- peak, ridge, highest part of a mountain chain.
- cape, headland, promontory, ness
- 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.709:[5]
- inde legit Capreas promunturiumque Minervae / et Surrentino generosos palmite colles
- Translation by Frank Justus Miller
- Thence he skirted Capreae, Minerva's promontory, and the hills of Surrentum rich in vines
- Translation by Frank Justus Miller
- inde legit Capreas promunturiumque Minervae / et Surrentino generosos palmite colles
Declension
editSecond-declension noun (neuter).
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | prōmunturium | prōmunturia |
Genitive | prōmunturiī prōmunturī1 |
prōmunturiōrum |
Dative | prōmunturiō | prōmunturiīs |
Accusative | prōmunturium | prōmunturia |
Ablative | prōmunturiō | prōmunturiīs |
Vocative | prōmunturium | prōmunturia |
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
Descendants
edit- Catalan: promontori
- English: promontory
- French: promontoire
- Galician: promontorio
- Italian: promontorio
- Portuguese: promontório
- Spanish: promontorio
References
edit- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “prōmunturium”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots[1] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 538
- ^ Müller, Lucian (1892) Platner, Samuel Ball, transl., Greek and Roman Versification: With an Introduction on the Development of Ancient Versification, Allyn and Bacon, page 93
- ^ Müller, Lucian (1894) De re metrica poetarum latinorum [...], 2 edition, page 302
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “mōns, -tis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 388
- ^ Miller, Frank Justus (1958) Ovid Metamorphoses with an English translation by Frank Justus Miller, volume 2, page 414
Further reading
edit- “promunturium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “promunturium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- promunturium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
- a promontory juts out into the sea: promunturium in mare procurrit
- to double a cape: promunturium superare
- to double an island, cape: superare insulam, promunturium
- a promontory juts out into the sea: promunturium in mare procurrit
- Latin terms with unknown etymologies
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin 5-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin second declension nouns
- Latin neuter nouns in the second declension
- Latin neuter nouns
- Latin terms with quotations
- Latin words in Meissner and Auden's phrasebook
- la:Landforms