cubitum

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʊ.bɪ.tũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkuː.bi.tum]

Etymology 1

Neuter substantive use of the perfect passive participle of cubō (“lie down, recline”).

Alternative forms

• cubitus

Noun

cubitum n (genitive cubitī); second declension

1. elbow
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 4.690-691:

     Ter sēsē attollēns cubitōque adnīxa levāvit,
     ter revolūta torō est [...].

     Lifting herself three times, [Dido] had tried to raise upon her elbow, and thrice she had rolled back upon the bed [...].
     (Fratantuono and Smith [2022], pg. 916: “The only elbow in Virgil: another graphic detail as the poet continues his emphasis on the physical.”)

2. cubit (measure)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	cubitum	cubita
genitive	cubitī	cubitōrum
dative	cubitō	cubitīs
accusative	cubitum	cubita
ablative	cubitō	cubitīs
vocative	cubitum	cubita

Derived terms

• cubitālis

Descendants

• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: cuidu, cuitu, cúvidu
• Balkano-Romance:
  • Aromanian: cot, cotu
  • Istro-Romanian: cot, cuvet
  • Megleno-Romanian: cot, cuot
  • Romanian: cot
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Corsican: goitu
  • Istriot: cumio
  • Neapolitan: gùveto, vute, ute, viute, júvete
  • Old Italian: gombito
    • Italian: gomito
  • Sicilian: gùvitu
  • Venetan: gùmio, gòmio, gòmbio, comio
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Romansh: cumbel, cundun
  • Friulian: comedon
  • Ladin: cumedon
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Emilian: gòmet, gåmmt, gånbdt (Bologna), gòmat
  • Lombard: gombed
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: codo
  • Old French: coute, code, cote, cute
    • French: coude
      • Haitian Creole: koud
    • Norman: coute, kut (Sark)
    • Walloon: keute
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Occitan: coide, cobde
  • Old Catalan: *coude, colde, coldo
    • Catalan: colze, colzo, cotze
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: coudo
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: covedo, côbedo
    • Galician: cóbado, cóbedo, códabo
    • Portuguese: coto, côvado
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: coldo, coldu, coudu, codu
    • Leonese: coldo
  • Old Spanish: cobdo
    • Ladino: kovdo
    • Spanish: codo

Ancient borrowings:

• → Ancient Greek: κύβιτον (kúbiton)
• → Proto-Albanian: *kuβət
  • Albanian: kut

Later borrowings:

• → Catalan: cúbit
• → French: cubitus
• → Galician: cúbito
• → Italian: cubito
• → Middle English: cubite (see there for further descendants)
• → Portuguese: cúbito
• → Romanian: cubitus
• → Spanish: cúbito

Etymology 2

Verb

cubitum

1. accusative supine of cubō

References

• “cubitum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cubitum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cubitum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to go to bed: cubitum ire