mons

See also: Mons, Mons., and möns

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mōns (“mountain”). Doublet of mount.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɒnz/
• Rhymes: -ɒnz

Noun

mons (plural montes)

1. (obsolete, palmistry) One of the fleshy areas at the base of the fingers; a mount.
2. The pubic mound or mons pubis. In human anatomy or in mammals in general, the mons pubis (Latin for "pubic mound"), also known as the mons veneris (Latin, mound of Venus) or simply the mons, is the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone of adult females, anterior to the pubic symphysis. The mons pubis forms the anterior portion of the vulva.
3. (astronomy, geology) A mountain or extinct volcano on a planet or a moon.

   Olympus Mons (Mars)

   Maxwell Montes (Venus).

Translations

fleshy area at the base of fingers

• Finnish: kukkula (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

mons pubis — see mons pubis

astronomy: mountain on a planet or moon

• Finnish: vuori (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• MNOs, nMOS, noms

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Catalan

Alternative forms

• (standard) mos

Determiner

mons

1. (dialectal) masculine plural of mon

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Haitian Creole

Etymology

Borrowed from French monstre (“monster”).

Noun

mons

1. (mythology) monster (a terrifying or dangerous mystical creature)

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *montis, from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to stand out, to tower”). Compare Old Breton monid, Breton menez, Cornish meneth, Welsh mynydd.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /mons/, [mõːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /mons/, [mɔns]

Noun

mōns m (genitive montis); third declension

1. mountain, mount
   • 397 CE – 400 CE, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, Cōnfessiōnēs 10.8:

     et eunt hominēs mīrārī alta montium et ingentēs flūctūs maris et lātissimōs lāpsūs flūminum et ōceanī ambitum et gȳrōs sīderum, et relinquunt sē ipsōs, …

     And men go to marvel at the heights of mountains and the huge waves of the sea and the widest courses of rivers and the flow of the ocean and the circuits of the stars, and they forsake themselves …

2. hill
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.517:

     montibus hīs ōlim tōtus prōmittitur orbis

     To these hills, one day, the whole world is promised.

3. (metonymically) towering mass, heap, great quantity
4. (metonymically) mountain rock, rock (in general) (poetically)
5. (metonymically) mountain beasts, wild beasts (Late Latin, poetically)
6. (metonymically) (of that which is obtained from the mountains) marble, marble column

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mōns	montēs
Genitive	montis	montium
Dative	montī	montibus
Accusative	montem	montēs montīs
Ablative	monte	montibus
Vocative	mōns	montēs

Derived terms

• Mōns Casīnus
• montānus
• montāna
• monticellus
• monticola
• monticulus
• Montīnus
• montivagus
• *montō
• montuōsus

Proverbs

• parturiunt montēs, nāscētur rīdiculus mūs (“much is promised, but little will be performed”, literally “the mountains are in labour, a ridiculous mouse will be born”).
• montēs aurī pollicērī (“to make great promises”, literally “to promise mountains of gold”).

Descendants

• Aromanian: munti, munte
• Asturian: monte
• Catalan: munt
• Corsican: monti
• Dalmatian: muant
• French: mont
• Friulian: mont
• Istriot: monto
• Italian: monte
• Occitan: mont
• → Old English: munt
  • Middle English: mount, mont, mounte, mownt, munt
    • English: mount
    • Scots: munt
• Old Galician-Portuguese: monte
  • Galician: monte
  • Portuguese: monte
    • Guinea-Bissau Creole: monti
• Romanian: munte
• Sardinian: monte
• Sicilian: munti
• Spanish: monte
• Venetian: mónte

References

• “mons”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mons”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mons in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • wooded hills: montes vestiti silvis
    
  • the top of a mountain: summus mons
    
  • at the foot of the mountain: sub radicibus montis, in infimo monte, sub monte
    
  • to be shut in on all sides by very high mountains: altissimis montibus undique contineri
    
  • the town lies at the foot of a mountain: oppidum monti subiectum est
    
  • to run obliquely down the hill: obliquo monte decurrere
    
  • the Nile rushes down from very high mountains: Nilus praecipitat ex altissimis montibus
    
  • to hold a mountain: tenere montem (B. G. 1. 22)
    
  • to take up one's position on a mountain: consistere in monte
    
  • to occupy the foot of a hill: considere sub monte (sub montis radicibus)
    

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Swedish

Noun

mons

1. (deprecated template usage) definite genitive singular of mo