cucumis

See also: Cucumis

Latin

Etymology 1

A wanderwort likely ultimately from Sumerian 𒄾 (ukuš₂, “cucumber”) or an unidentified pre-Indo-European Mediterranean substrate language; see Arabic قِثَّاء (qiṯṯāʔ, “snake melon”), as well as Ancient Greek σῐκῠ́ᾱ (sĭkŭ́ā, “bottle gourd”). Compare especially Ancient Greek κύκυον (kúkuon), κυκύϊζα (kukúïza, “a type of sweet round gourd”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʊ.kʊ.mɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkuː.ku.mis]

Noun

cucumis m (genitive cucumeris or cucumis); third declension

cucumis (1.1)

1. cucumber, melon: any variety of the species Cucumis melo (true melons)
   2. Cucumis melo var. flexuosus: the preferred type in Roman Italy, today known as the Armenian cucumber, snake melon or vegetable melon
   3. any other variety of Cucumis melo
2. Citrullus lanatus: watermelon
3. Ecballium elaterium: squirting cucumber (usually with an epithet like anguīnus or errāticus)
4. sea cucumber
5. (Medieval Latin, New Latin) Cucumis sativus: garden cucumber

Usage notes

• Cucumerēs (cucumbers) reaching a certain large size, so that the rind could fit over a child's head, were called pepones (pumpkins).
• The species Cucumis sativus was unknown to the Romans.

Declension

Third-declension noun (imparisyllabic non-i-stem or i-stem, accusative singular in -im, ablative singular in -ī; two different stems).

	singular	plural
nominative	cucumis	cucumerēs cucumēs
genitive	cucumeris cucumis	cucumerum cucumium
dative	cucumerī cucumī	cucumeribus cucumibus
accusative	cucumerem cucumim	cucumerēs cucumēs cucumīs
ablative	cucumere cucumī	cucumeribus cucumibus
vocative	cucumis	cucumerēs cucumēs

Derived terms

• cucumerāceus
• cucumerārium
• cucumeriformis, cucumiformis

Descendants

• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: cogúmbiu, cucúmene, cugúmbiri, cugúmbiu, cugúmene, cugúmere, cugúmeri, cugúmeru, cugùmine, cugúmini, cugúmiu, cugúmmaru, cugúrumu
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Dalmatian: cucumar
  • Italian: cocomero
  • Sicilian: cucummru
  • Venetan: cocomaro, cocomero, cugumero, cucùmaro
    • → Serbo-Croatian: kukumar
      • → Romanian: cucumăr
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: cudumar
  • Ladin: cucumero
  • Romansh: cucumer, cucumera
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Emilian: cucümar, cucòmbar, cheumar, cumar, gombar
  • Gallo-Italic of Sicily: cocombar
  • Ligurian: chighéumou, chigèumori, cughéumai, chigèummo
  • Lombard: cucumer, cucumro, cocomber, chicumro (plural "chicumbri")
  • Piedmontese: cucumer, cocom, cocomo, cocomber, chëcchëmmo, cocómber, cocòmer, cachëmo
  • Romagnol: cómar
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Old French: cocombre (see there for further descendants)
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: cogombre
  • Old Occitan: cocombre, cogombre
    • Occitan: cocombre, codombre, cogombre, colombre

      Gascon: cogom

• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: cogombro
    • Galician: cogombro
    • Portuguese: cogombro
  • Spanish: cohombro, cogombro
• Borrowings:
  • → Middle High German: cucumer
    • Alemannic German: Gugummere, Guggummere
    • Bavarian: Gugumer
    • German: Cucumer m (obsolete), Kukumer f
      • → Slovene: kúmara, kukumər, kukumra
    • Palatine German: Kukumer, Kukummer, Gugummer, Gegummere, Gummere
    • South Hessian: Kummere, Gummere
  • → Translingual: Cucumis
  • → Welsh: cucumer

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʊ.kʊ.miːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkuː.ku.mis]

Noun

cucumīs

1. dative/ablative plural of cucuma (“kettle”)

Further reading

• “cucumis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cucumis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cucumis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “ukuš”, in The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary‎^[1], University of Pennsylvania, 2006
• Janick, Jules; Paris, Harry S.; Parrish, David C. (2007), “The Cucurbits of Mediterranean Antiquity: Identification of Taxa from Ancient Images and Descriptions”, in Annals of Botany‎^[2], volume 100, number 7, →DOI, pages 1441–1457