# cucumis
## Latin
### Etymology 1

A wanderwort likely ultimately from Sumerian 𒄾 (ukuš$_2$, “cucumber”) or an unidentified pre-Indo-European Mediterranean substrate language; see Arabic قِثَّاء (qiṯṯāʔ, “snake melon”), as well as Ancient Greek σῐκῠ́ᾱ (sĭkŭ́ā, “bottle gourd”). Compare especially Ancient Greek κύκυον (kúkuon), κυκύϊζα (kukúïza, “a type of sweet round gourd”).

#### Pronunciation

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

#### Noun

cucumis m (genitive cucumeris or cucumis); third declension
* cucumber, melon: any variety of the species Cucumis melo (true melons)
** Cucumis melo var. flexuosus: most preferred type in Roman Italy, today known as the Armenian cucumber, snake melon or vegetable melon
** any other variety of Cucumis melo
* Citrullus lanatus: watermelon
* (Medieval Latin, New Latin) Cucumis sativus: garden cucumber
* (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).

##### 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: /ˈku.ku.miːs/, [ˈkʊkʊmiːs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈku.ku.mis/, [ˈkuːkumis]

#### Noun

cucumīs
* dative/ablative plural of cucuma (“kettle”)

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cucumis, -eris”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 148

### 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, 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, volume 100, number 7, →DOI, pages 1441–1457