# linum
## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *līnom, likely from Proto-Indo-European *līnom.
Cognates include Old English līne (“line, rope, cord”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽 (lein) and other derivatives of Proto-Germanic *līną, although Pokorny proposed it is a borrowing from Latin.
Although Greek λίνον (línon), Lithuanian linas, Russian лён (ljon) are sometimes listed as cognates, they actually derive from *lino- with a short /i/.
Celtic and Albanian words for linen probably derive from Latin, although Celtic languages retained possibly related cloth terms with a short /i/ (see *linnā).
Considering also the existence of a Latin root with a short /i/ and a /t/ (linteum), reconstruction of a common PIE protoform is impossible, and no similarly sounding terms are attested outside of Europe.
If such roots were borrowed from one or several non-IE languages, as proposed by Machek, locating the source is impossible because cultivation of linen was ubiquitous in the region since the Neolithic.
Alternatively, Fick proposed derivation as a passive past participle from Proto-Indo-European *lei- (“to flow, pour”) because flax is soaked in water during its retting.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈliː.num/, [ˈlʲiːnʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈli.num/, [ˈliːnum]

### Noun

līnum n (genitive līnī); second declension
* flax
* linen cloth; garment made of linen
* rope, line, string, thread, cord, cable
** 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.239–240:fēsta diēs illīs, quī līna madentia dūcunt, quīque tegunt parvīs aera recurva cibīsThe day [is] a festival for those who pull [their] dripping lines, and who hide [their] hooked bronze in little bits [of] food. (In other words, a holiday for fishermen, whose hooks are drawn with dripping lines. Although fishermen also use dripping nets, in that case rētia madentia would seem more likely word choices.)
* net for hunting or fishing
* wick of a lamp
* sail

#### Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

#### Synonyms

* (rope, cord): chorda, cōpula, fūnis, mītra, restis, retināculum, rudēns

#### Derived terms

* līnārius
* līnea
* līneus
* līnifer
* līnificus
* līniger
* linoides
* linteum
* linteus

#### Related terms

* līneālis
* līneāmentum
* līneāris
* līneārius
* līneātiō
* līneō
* līneola
* linteāmen
* linteārius
* linteātus
* linteō
* linteolum
* linteolus

#### Descendants

* → Albanian: li
* Aromanian: ljin, ljinu
* Asturian: llinu, llino, llin, ḷḷinu
* Catalan: lli
* → English: linoleum, lino
* French: lin
* Friulian: lin
* Italian: lino
* Megleno-Romanian: ľin
* Norman: lîn
* Occitan: lin
* Old Galician-Portuguese: lỹo, lynno (late)
** Galician: liño
** Portuguese: linho
* Romanian: in
* Sardinian: linu
* Sicilian: linu
* Spanish: lino
* Translingual: Linum
* Venetan: lin
* Welsh: llin

### References

* “linum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “linum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "linum", 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)
* linum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. to open a letter: epistulam solvere, aperire, resignare (of Romans also linum incīdere)
* “linum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “līnum”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 344

## Volapük
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /liˈnum/

### Noun

linum (nominative plural linums)
* flax

#### Declension

$^1$ status as a case is disputed $^2$ in later, non-classical Volapük only