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 (sikúā, “bottle gourd”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.mis/, [ˈkʊkʊmɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.mis/, [ˈkuːkumis]

cucumis (1.1)

Noun

cucumis m (genitive cucumeris or cucumis); third declension

1. cucumber, melon: any variety of the species Cucumis melo (true melons)
   2. Cucumis melo var. flexuosus: most 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. (Medieval Latin, New Latin) Cucumis sativus: garden cucumber
4. (New Latin) the genus Cucumis

Usage notes

• Cucumerēs (cucumbers) reaching a certain large size, so that the rind could be applied 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

• Italo-Romance:
  • Dalmatian: cucumar
  • Italian: cocomero (“watermelon”)
  • Sicilian: cacùmmaru
• Padanian:
  • Emilian: cucümar, cucòmbar, cheumar, cumar, gombar
  • Friulian: cudumar
  • 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
  • Romansch: cucumer, cucumera (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran)
  • Venetan: cocomaro, cocomero, cugumero, cucùmaro
    • → Serbo-Croatian: kukumar
      • → Romanian: cucumăr
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Old French: cocombre
    • Middle French: coucombre
      • French: concombre
      • → Middle English: cucumer, cucumber, cucumbre, kykombre
        • English: cucumber
          • Tok Pisin: kukamba
          • → Cherokee: ᎦᎦᎹ (gagama)
          • → Plains Cree: kohkompaninawak
          • → Spanish: cacombra
          • → Welsh: ciwcymbr
          • → Zulu: îkhukhámba
    • Norman: cocombre (Jersey)
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: cogombre; codombro (València and Tarragona); coombro (Tortosí)
  • 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:
  • → Translingual: Cucumis
  • → Middle High German: cucumer
    • German: Kukumer f, formerly Cucumer m
      • → Slovene: kúmara, also kukumər and kukumra
    • Alemannic German: Gugummere, Guggummere
    • Bavarian: Gugumer
    • Palatine German: Kukumer, Kukummer, Gugummer, Gegummere, Gummere
    • South Hessian: Kummere, Gummere
  • → Welsh: cucumer

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.miːs/, [ˈkʊkʊmiːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ku.mis/, [ˈkuːkumis]

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