The corpus record — Latin

Balbus2

stammering

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

de Natura Deorum 34 · 9.51/10k
Ludus Septem Sapientum 1 · 7.58/10k
Letters to Atticus 80 · 6.51/10k
Maximus et Balbinus 2 · 6.36/10k
Maximini Duo 3 · 5.53/10k
Pescennius Niger 1 · 4.39/10k
Atticus 1 · 2.83/10k
Letters to and from Quintus 5 · 2.72/10k
Severus 1 · 2.37/10k
Pro M. Caelio 2 · 2.36/10k
Divus Augustus 3 · 2.24/10k
Epistulae ad Familiares 26 · 2.23/10k

Densest 12 of 39 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. balbus — de Vaan

balbus 'stammering' [m. o] (Lucil.+) Derivatives: balbuttire / balbutTre 'to stammer' (Cic>). Pit. *balbo-. PIE *bl-bl- 'meaningless twaddle, stammering'. IE cognates: Skt balbala-kardti 'stammers', Gr. βαμβαλύζω 'to have chattering teeth', Lith. balbasyti, blebenti, — [de Vaan, s.v. balbus, p. 82]

2. balbus — Lewis & Short

balbus, a, um, adj.kindr. with balo; cf. Sanscr. barh, barrire, and barbarus,

I stammering, stuttering (opp. planus, speaking fluently, without impediment): balba, loqui non quit? trauli/zei, does she (the loved one) stammer, can she not speak distinctly? (then he says) she lisps, Lucr. 4, 1164: Demosthenes cum ita balbus esset, ut ejus ipsius artis, cui studeret (sc. rhetoricae), primam litteram (sc. r) non posset dicere, perfecit meditando, ut nemo planius esse locutus putaretur, Cic. de Or. 1, 61, 260; and thus in ridicule, id. Fam. 2, 10, 1: os pueri, Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 126: senectus, id. ib. 1, 20, 18; Dig. 21, 1, 10, § 5: verba, Tib. 2, 5, 94; Hor. S. 2, 3, 274: balbā de nare loqui, to speak through the nose, Pers. 1, 33.—Adv.: balbē, stammeringly, etc., Lucr. 5, 1021.—

2 Transf., obscurely, Varr. ap. Non. p. 80, 7.

3. Balbus — Lewis & Short

Balbus, i, m.,

I a Roman cognomen, Cic. Att. 8, 9, 4; id. Balb. passim; id. Cael. 11, 27; id. de Or. 3, 21, 78 al.

4. balbus — Walde–Hofmann

balbus, -«, -um „stammelnd, lallend* (seit Lucil, rom., davon balbö, -äre Isid. Gloss., vgl. afrz. beuber „stottern*), balbutio (-tt-), -ire ,stammeln* (seit Cic., vgl. caecätio und Leumann-Stolz* 319): lautmalendes *bel- (s. auch unter babit) mit gehrochener Reduphkation, wie ai. balbütháh Name (eig. ,Stammler*), tech. bib , Tólpel", blblati ,stammeln*, serb. blebotats, lit. blebénti , plappern*; mit voller Redupl. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. balbus, p. 126]

In the wild

Balbe Cicero, de Natura Deorum 3.24
Balbe Cicero, de Natura Deorum 1.22
Balbus Cicero, de Natura Deorum 3.4.p2
Balbum Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 7.8.7
Balbum Cicero, Letters to and from Quintus 2.10.4
Balbo Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.2A.1

6 of 207 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. balbus (scan p. 82; entry #136). Root candidates: *balbo-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. balbus (scan p. 89; entry #1143).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. balbus (scan p. 126; entry #354). Root candidates: *bel-.

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.