Path: nntp.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.szaf.org!inka.de!mips.inka.de!.POSTED.localhost!not-for-mail From: Christian Weisgerber Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,sci.lang Subject: Re: Word of the day; "grumous". Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2025 19:29:18 -0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <878ql92c2w.fsf@parhasard.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2025 19:29:18 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: lorvorc.mips.inka.de; posting-host="localhost:::1"; logging-data="4393"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@mips.inka.de" User-Agent: slrn/1.0.3 (FreeBSD) On 2025-06-30, Aidan Kehoe wrote: > It’s an unremarkable borrowing from late Latin, OED describes [ad. late L. > grumus little heap, hillock;]. I can’t find any convincing further etymology > beyond that. De Vann in the _Etymological Dictionary of Latin_ (2008): -------------------> grūmus ‘heap of earth, hillock’ [m. o] (Acc.+) Derivatives: dēgrūmare 'to level off (Enn,+). PIt. *grōmo- ‘heap’. PIE *h₂ǵr-ōm-o-. IE cognates: see s.v. gremium. Lat. grumus could be connected with gremium < *grem- and OCS gramada ‘heap, pile’ < *grōm-. A preform *grōmos may have turned into grūmus phonetically: the change of *ōm > ūm might also found in hūmānus (see s.v. homō). The words that retain -ōm- either have a following front vowel (abdōmen, nōmen, fōmes, mōmentum. tōmenium, ōmen, vōmer, cōmis) or are due to a contraction of *o+e (pōmum, prōmus); the only exception is Rōma. Thus, the raising of *ō in front of m may require the additional condition of a following back vowel (no exceptions) or non-front vowel (exception Rōma; but being a name, this may have escaped the sound change). For the relevance of the vowel in the next syllabe for the a vowel change, compare the change *e > o /m,w _ CV[non-front] discussed by Schrijver 1991: 466-470. Note also that the raising of *ē to Lat. ī is conditioned in a similar way, viz. by -i- in the next syllable, Bibl.: WH I: 623, EM 283, IEW 376ff. → gremium <------------------- -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de