lumbus

English

Etymology

Naturalized into medical English from the Latin.

Noun

lumbus (plural lumbi)

  1. (anatomy) Synonym of loin.

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-.[1] Sihler instead suggests that the /b/ can be explained by borrowing from Oscan-Umbrian.[2] Alternatively, borrowing from Proto-Germanic *lundwuz (“loin, kidney fat”) is also a possibility.[3]

Pronunciation

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
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: lombo
  • Old Spanish: lombo

References
  1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “lumbus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 352
  2. Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 141
  3. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “loin”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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.
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