saeculum

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin saeculum.

Noun

saeculum (plural saeculums or saecula)

1. A length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a human being or, equivalently, the complete renewal of a human population.
2. An approximately 85 year cycle in Strauss-Howe generational theory, a highly controversial sociological theory that postulates that zeitgeist and popular cultural values exist along recurring cycles.

Latin

Alternative forms

• saeclum (poetic)
• sēclum (poetic, rare)
• sēculum (poetic, rare)

Etymology

Probably from *sh₂ey- (“to bind, knit, tie together, tie to, connect”) + *-tlom (instrumental suffix) (whence Latin -culum), in the sense of successive generations being linked together over time. Compare Lithuanian sėkla (“seed”), Proto-Celtic *saitlom (“life, age”), Gaulish Sētlocenia, Hittite [script needed] (išhi-, “to bind”), Sanskrit सि (si, “to bind”).

An alternative theory derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈsae̯.ku.lum/, [ˈs̠äe̯kʊɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.ku.lum/, [ˈsɛːkulum]

Noun

saeculum n (genitive saeculī); second declension

1. race, breed
2. generation, lifetime
3. the amount of time between an occurrence and the death of the final person who was alive at, or witness to, that occurrence
4. age, time, the times, an era
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.191–192:

     rīsit et ‘ō quam tē fallunt tua saecula,’ dīxit
     ‘quī stipe mel sūmpta dulcius esse putēs!’

     He smiled, and said: ‘‘Oh, how wrong you are about your era,
     if you think honey is sweeter than taking up money!’’

5. century
6. worldliness; the world

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	saeculum	saecula
Genitive	saeculī	saeculōrum
Dative	saeculō	saeculīs
Accusative	saeculum	saecula
Ablative	saeculō	saeculīs
Vocative	saeculum	saecula

Derived terms

• in saecula saeculorum
• in saeculum
• saeculāris

Descendants

• → Albanian: shekull
• → Aragonese: sieglo (semi-learned)
• → Asturian: sieglu (semi-learned)
• → Corsican: seculu (semi-learned)
• → English: saeculum, secle
• Fala: siglu
• → Galician: século
• Old Piedmontese: sevol
• → Interlingua: seculo
• → Italian: secolo (semi-learned)
• Neapolitan: seculo
• → Old French: ciecle, secle, sekle, sicle, siecle; seule (early) (semi-learned)
  • Middle French: siecle
    • French: siècle, siecle (obsolete)
      • Haitian Creole: syèk
    • Norman: siaeclle (Guernsey), siècl'ye (Jersey)
• → Old Irish: saegul
  • Irish: saol
  • Manx: seihll
  • Scottish Gaelic: saoghal
• Old Occitan: segle
  • Catalan: segle
  • Occitan: sègle, sècle, siècle
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: seglo, segre (semi-learned)
• → Old Spanish: siclo, sieglo, siglo (semi-learned)
  • Spanish: siglo
    • → Cebuano: siglo
    • → Kabuverdianu: seklu
    • → Papiamentu: siglo
    • → Tagalog: siglo
• → Portuguese: século
• → Romanian: secol
• → Sicilian: sèculu (semi-learned)
  • → Maltese: seklu
• → Swedish: sekel
• → Waray-Waray: siglo

References

• “saeculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “saeculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• saeculum 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)
• saeculum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the spirit of the times, the fashion: saeculi consuetudo or ratio atque inclinatio temporis (temporum)
    
  • universal history: omnis memoria, omnis memoria aetatum, temporum, civitatum or omnium rerum, gentium, temporum, saeculorum memoria
    
• “saeculum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “saeculum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Watkins, Calvert (1985) “sē-”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Tucker, T.G., Etymological Dictionary of Latin, Ares Publishers, 1976 (reprint of 1931 edition).
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN