lumbus

Latin

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“to enter, penetrate, expand”), making it cognate with Old English lynd (“fat, grease”), lendenu (“loins”), Sanskrit रन्ध्र (rándhra). More at dialectal lend. As the expected reflex of *dʰ after a nasal in Latin is /d/, De Vaan explains the /b/ as a secondary development from coalescence of /dw/ (as in initial position in words like bonus) in a form *londwo- derived via expansion of a u-stem *lendʰu-. Sihler instead suggests that the /b/ can be explained by borrowing from Oscan-Umbrian. Alternatively, borrowing from Proto-Germanic *lundwuz (“loin, kidney fat”) is also a possibility.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈlum.bus/, [ˈɫ̪ʊmbʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈlum.bus/, [ˈlumbus]

Noun

lumbus m (genitive lumbī); second declension

1. (anatomy) loin
2. (Late Latin) lumbar
3. (in the plural) genitals

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lumbus	lumbī
Genitive	lumbī	lumbōrum
Dative	lumbō	lumbīs
Accusative	lumbum	lumbōs
Ablative	lumbō	lumbīs
Vocative	lumbe	lumbī

Descendants

• Asturian: llombu
• Catalan: llom
• Extremaduran: lombu
• → French: lombes
• Italian: lombo
• Old French: loigne
  • → Middle English: loyne
    • English: loin
  • → Welsh: llwyn
• Old Galician-Portuguese: lombo
  • Galician: lombo
  • Portuguese: lombo
    • Kabuverdianu: lonbu
    • Papiamentu: lomba
• Old Spanish: lombo
  • Spanish: lomo

Further reading

• “lumbus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lumbus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lumbus 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)
• lumbus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.