The corpus record — Latin

humus

earth, ground

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

Where it lives

Medicamina faciei femineae 1 · 16.31/10k
De Arte Poetica liber 4 · 12.94/10k
Moretum, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 12.92/10k
Eclogues 5 · 11.02/10k
Ibis 4 · 10.18/10k
Fasti 27 · 8.66/10k
Amores 13 · 8.32/10k
Cathemerina 6 · 8.15/10k
Epodon 2 · 6.65/10k
Remedia Amoris 3 · 5.72/10k
Res Rustica, Books I-IX 41 · 5.21/10k
Epistulae 13 · 5.08/10k

Densest 12 of 101 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. humus — de Vaan

humus 'earth, ground' [f. (m.) ο] (Ρ1.+; loc.sg, humi) Derivatives: humare 'to bury' (Varro+)> inhumatus 'unburied' (Pac.+), humilis 'low, humble' (Ter.+), humilitas 'lowness, humbleness' (Acc.+). Pit. *χοτηο~. It. cognates: O. hiinttram [acc.sg.f.], huntrus [nom. or acc.pl.rn.], huntras [gen.sg,, nom. or acc.pl-f.], huntruis [datpl.m.] 'who is below' < *ghom(i)-tero-; U. hutra, hondra 'underneath' [prep. + ace], … — [de Vaan, s.v. humus, p. 306]

2. hŭmus — Lewis & Short

hŭmus, i (archaic form of the

I abl. sing. humu, Varr. ap. Non. 488, 6 and 48, 26), f. (archaic masc. humum humidum pedibus fodit, Laev. ap. Prisc. p. 719 P.: humidum humum, Gracch. ib.) [from the prim. form *x*a*m, whence xa^mai/, xa^mo/qen, xa^ma^lo/s, Lat. humilis; kindr. with Sanscr. Xám, earth; Gr. xqw/n], the earth, the ground, the soil.

I Lit. (class.; cf.: terra, solum, tellus): humus erat immunda, lutulenta vino, coronis languidulis et spinis coöperta piscium, Cic. Fragm. Or. pro Gall. ap. Quint. 8, 3, 66 (ap. Orell. IV. 2, p. 454); cf.: omnia constrata telis, armis, cadaveribus et inter ea humus infecta sanguine, Sall. J. 101 fin.: subacta atque pura, Cic. de Sen. 17, 59: cubitis pinsibant humum, Enn. ap. Varr. L. L. 5, § 23 Müll. (Trag. v. 435 Vahl.); cf.: procubuit moriens et humum semel ore momordit. bit the ground and died (cf. the Homer. o)da\c e(lei=n gai=an), Verg. A. 11, 418: calcibus atram Tundit humum exspirans, id. ib. 10, 731; cf. Ov. A. A. 1, 112: pede candido In morem Salium ter quatient humum, Hor. C. 4, 1, 28: Acestes aequaevum ab humo attollit amicum, Verg. A. 5, 452: sedit humo, Ov. M. 4, 261: ipse feraces Figat humo plantas, Verg. G. 4, 115; cf.: semina spargere humo, Ov. M. 5, 647: surgit humo, id. F. 6, 735; cf.: nec se movit humo, id. M. 4, 264: dejectoque in humum vultu, id. ib. 6, 607: propter humum volitat, id. ib. 8, 258: humi atque ipsius stirpis laetitia, Col. 4, 24, 4; cf.: quis cibus erat caro ferina atque humi pabulum uti pecoribus, Sall. J. 18, 1: ii, quos humus injecta contegeret (shortly afterwards, gleba), Cic. Leg. 2, 22, 57: quae (genera arborum) humi arido atque arenoso gignuntur, Sall. J. 48, 3 Kritz N. cr.—Poet., as a fig. for what is low, mean, common: sermones repentes per humum, Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 251; cf.: ne, dum vitat humum, nubes et inania captet, id. A. P. 230: ad humum maerore gravi deducit et angit, id. ib. 110; v. also under adv.: affigit humo divinae particulam aurae, id. S. 2, 2, 79.—

II Transf., in gen., like solum, land, country, region: Punica nec Teucris pressa fuisset humus, Ov. H. 7, 140: Aonia, id. F. 1, 490: Illyrica, id. Med. Fac. 74: Pontica, id. P. 3, 5, 56.—

III Adverbial form humi, like xamai/, on the ground or to the ground: jacere humi, Cic. Cat. 1, 10, 26: requiescere, Sall. J. 85, 33: strati, Cic. de Or. 3, 6, 22; cf.: serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae, Hor. A. P. 28: quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? fixed on the ground, Cic. Rep. 6, 17: locus circiter duodecim pedes humi depressus, Sall. C. 55, 3: quot humi morientia corpora fundis? Verg. A. 11, 665: spargere humi dentes, Ov. M. 3, 105; cf.: hunc stravit humi, id. ib. 12, 255: tremens procumbit humi bos, Verg. A. 5, 481: volvitur ille excussus humi, id. ib. 11, 640; cf.: projectum humi jugulavit, Tac. H. 2, 64: stratus humi palmes viduas desiderat ulmos, Juv. 8, 78.

3. humus — Walde–Hofmann

humus, - (sek. -às Inschr., -à Varro, vgl. domus) f. (vereinzelt m., Schwanken wie in colus usw.) „Erde, Erdboden“ (seit Enn., vlt. und rom. verdrängt durch terra; humö, -äre „beerdigen“ [eig. „mit Erde bedecken“, Varro 11.5, 23j seit Varro und Cic. (inhumäre ds. Ven. Fort., inhumätus ,unbeerdigt^ seit Pacuv., inhumätor 'pollinetor’ CL], Rumilis, -e ,niedrig^ (seit Ter., humilitàs seit Acc., humilitätula Rustic. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. humus, p. 696]

In the wild

humus Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.370
humi Historia Augusta, Gordiani Tres 8
humi Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 6.2e.3
humum Juvenal, Saturae 5.15.63
humum Vergil, Georgicon 3.298
humus Martial, Epigrammata 12.62.4

6 of 527 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. humus (scan p. 306; entry #784).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. humus (scan p. 326; entry #5146).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. humus (scan pp. 696-697; entry #1345). Root candidates: *ghdem-, *jlidom-, *jhem-.

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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.