basium

Latin

Etymology

Probably borrowed from Celtic, from an expressive root such as Proto-Indo-European *bu-. Compare Middle Irish pusóc (“kiss”), English buss, German Buss (“kiss”), Polish buzia, buziak (“kiss”), Lithuanian bučiúoti (“to kiss”), Albanian buzë (“lip”), and Persian بوس (bus, “kiss”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈbaː.si.um/, [ˈbäːs̠iʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈba.si.um/, [ˈbäːs̬ium]

Noun

bāsium n (genitive bāsiī or bāsī); second declension

1. kiss, especially of the hand
   • 15 BCE – 45 CE, Phaedrus, Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque 5.7.28:

     Iactat basia tibicen.

     . The flautist blows kisses.

2. (poetic) kiss of the lips (esp. used this way in Catullus and Martial)
   • 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus 5.7:

     da mi basia mille, deinde centum,

     Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	bāsium	bāsia
Genitive	bāsiī bāsī1	bāsiōrum
Dative	bāsiō	bāsiīs
Accusative	bāsium	bāsia
Ablative	bāsiō	bāsiīs
Vocative	bāsium	bāsia

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

Synonyms

• (kiss): ōsculum, suāvium

Derived terms

• bāsiō

Descendants

• Aromanian: bãshiu
• Asturian: besu
• Catalan: bes
• Corsican: basgiu
• Dalmatian: biss
• Friulian: buss, buš
• Galician: beixo
• Italian: bacio
• Ladino: bezo
• Neapolitan: vaso
• Occitan: bais
• Old French: baisier
  • Middle French: baiser
    • French: baiser
• Old Galician-Portuguese: beijo
  • Portuguese: beijo
• Romansch: bitsch, betsch, bütsch
• Sardinian: basu, baxu, vasu
• Sicilian: vasu
• Spanish: beso
• Venetian: baxo

References

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