conubium

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From con- +‎ nūbō (“I marry”) +‎ -ium. Per De Vaan, the cō-n- (found also in other words that are on the surface composed of con- + a stem starting with n-) has been explained as a development from previous *com-sn-.[1] In some contexts in verse, conubi- in this word must scan either as a spondee (with -i- pronounced as a consonant /j/) or as a dactyl (with short /u/ in the second syllable): it is debated which is correct.[2] In support of short /u/, the related words prōnuba and innuba can be cited. The form with short /u/ would come from the zero grade of the Proto-Indo-European root.

Pronunciation
  • (Classical) IPA(key): /koːˈnuː.bi.um/, [koːˈnuːbiʊ̃ˑ] or IPA(key): /koːˈnu.bi.um/, [koːˈnʊbiʊ̃ˑ]
  • (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /koˈnu.bi.um/, [koˈnuːbium]

Noun

cōnū̆bium n (genitive cōnū̆biī or cōnū̆bī); second declension

  1. marriage, wedlock
  2. (in the plural) ceremony of marriage
  3. (poetic) sexual union; confer coniugium
  4. (of plants) an engrafting

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative cōnū̆bium cōnū̆bia
Genitive cōnū̆biī
cōnū̆bī1		 cōnū̆biōrum
Dative cōnū̆biō cōnū̆biīs
Accusative cōnū̆bium cōnū̆bia
Ablative cōnū̆biō cōnū̆biīs
Vocative cōnū̆bium cōnū̆bia

1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

See also

References
  1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “nūbō”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 417
  2. Benjamin Hall Kennedy (1879) The Works of Virgil with a Commentary and Appendices, 2 edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 626

Further reading
  • “conubium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “conubium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • conubium 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)
  • conubium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
  • “conubium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
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