dorsum
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowing from Latin dorsum (“the back”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈdɔː.səm/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈdɔɹ.səm/
Noun[edit]
dorsum (plural dorsa)
- (anatomy) The back or dorsal region on the surface of an animal.
- Synonym: back
- The back of the tongue, used for articulating dorsal consonants.
- The top of the foot or the back of the hand.
- (geology) A ridge on a hill, or on the surface of a planet or moon.
- (astronomy) Theta Capricorni, a star on the back of the Goat.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
back of an animal
back of the tongue
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References[edit]
- “dorsum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “dorsum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Anagrams[edit]
Latin[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Proto-Italic *dorsom, with no certain cognates in any other Indo-European languages. Has been linked to deorsum (“downwards”) < *dēvorsum, but their contemporaneous use suggests that one was not a phonetic development of the other.[1] A potential connection with a Proto-Celtic *dros-man, giving Old Irish druimm (“back, ridge”), is unclear.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
dorsum n (genitive dorsī); second declension
- (anatomy) the back (part of the body between the neck and buttocks)
- (transferred sense) the ridge, summit of a hill, a reef in the sea; any elevation
- 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.108-110:
- Trīs Notus abreptās in saxa latentia torquet —
saxa vocant Italī mediīs quae in flūctibus ārās —
dorsum immāne marī summō [...].- Three [ships] were taken away [by] the Southwind, hurled into hidden rocks – rocks the Italians call the Altars, which [are] in the middle of the waves – a vast reef near the surface of the sea.
(This “vast reef” or “huge ridge” posed a hidden danger; understood more imaginatively, a “monstrous spine” of rock destroyed the ships. Notus was the Greek south wind.)
- Three [ships] were taken away [by] the Southwind, hurled into hidden rocks – rocks the Italians call the Altars, which [are] in the middle of the waves – a vast reef near the surface of the sea.
- Trīs Notus abreptās in saxa latentia torquet —
- Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita I, 3:
- Quae ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis Longa Alba appellata
- This [new city] was named Alba Longa, from its position, as it lay stretched out along the ridge
- Quae ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis Longa Alba appellata
Inflection[edit]
Second-declension noun (neuter).
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | dorsum | dorsa |
Genitive | dorsī | dorsōrum |
Dative | dorsō | dorsīs |
Accusative | dorsum | dorsa |
Ablative | dorsō | dorsīs |
Vocative | dorsum | dorsa |
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
- Vulgar Latin: dossum (see there for further descendants)
- → Catalan: dors
- → English: dorsum
- → Esperanto: dorso
- → Italian: dorso
- → Portuguese: dorso
- → Spanish: dorso
References[edit]
- “dorsum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “dorsum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- dorsum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- dorsum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- ^ Ramat, The Indo-European Languages
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- en:Anatomy
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