The corpus record — Latin

nimbus

rain-cloud, shower

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

Where it lives

Dirae, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 15.41/10k
Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus 2 · 11.75/10k
Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii Augusti 2 · 9.14/10k
Ephemeris id est totius diei negotium 1 · 7.71/10k
Panegyricus de tertio consulatu Honorii Augusti 1 · 7.24/10k
de raptu Proserpinae 4 · 5.74/10k
Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti 2 · 5.05/10k
Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuli 1 · 4.65/10k
Aeneid 24 · 3.79/10k
Argonautica 12 · 3.23/10k
Hamartigenia 2 · 3.13/10k
De Rerum Natura 15 · 3.08/10k

Densest 12 of 66 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. nimbus — de Vaan

nimbus 'rain-cloud, shower' [m. o] (Pac.+) Derivatives: nimbatus 'stormy' or 'clouded, shrouded in mists' (of a girl) (PL). Pit. *nefos-? PIE *nebh-os [n.], gen. -es-os 'cloud'. IE cognates: Hit. nepis [n. > c j , CLuw. tappas- [nj, HLuw. tipas-*[n.] 'sky, heaven', S\

2. nimbus — Lewis & Short

nimbus, i (

I gen. plur. nimbūm, Pac. ap. Trag. Rel. 412 Rib.), m. Sanscr. nabhas, cloud, vapor; Gr. ne/fos, nefe/lh; cf.: nubes, nebula, a violent or pouring rain, a rain-storm.

I Lit.: terra abit in nimbos imbremque, Lucil. ap. Varr. L. L. 5, § 24 Müll.: nec nubila nimbis aspergunt, Lucr. 3, 19: terrere animos fulminibus, tempestatibus, nimbis, nivibus, grandinibus, Cic. N. D. 2, 5, 14: denso regem operuit nimbo, Liv. 1, 16: cum multo stillaret paenula nimbo, Juv. 5, 79.—

B Transf.

1 A black rain-cloud, a thunder-cloud: noctisque et nimbūm occaecat nigror, Pac. ap. Cic. Div. 1, 14, 24, and de Or. 3, 39, 157: involvere diem nimbi, Verg. A. 3, 198; so id. ib. 3, 587; Stat. Th. 1, 97.—

b A cloud in general. So the bright cloud or cloudshaped splendor which enveloped the gods when they appeared on earth: proprie nimbus est, qui deorum vel imperantium capita quasi clara nebula ambire fingitur, Serv. Verg. A. 3, 585: nimbo succincta, Verg. A. 10, 634: nimbo effulgens, id. ib. 2, 616: nube candentes umeros amictus Augur Apollo, Hor. C. 1, 2, 31.—Hence, in eccl. Lat., of a saint's aureole, Isid. 19, 31, 2.—

(b) A cloud of smoke, dust, etc.: respiciunt atram in nimbo volitare favillam, Verg. A. 5, 666: fulvae nimbus harenae, id. G. 3, 110: pulveris, Claud. in Rufin. 2, 176.—

2 A head-band, frontlet, worn by females to make the forehead appear small, acc. to Isid. Orig. 19, 31 (in Arn. 2, 72, the correct reading is not nimbis, but limbis; v. limbus).—

3 Like the Engl. cloud, of a multitude of things which spread out like a cloud: nimbus peditum, Verg. A. 7, 793: pilorum, Sil. 5, 215: telorum, Luc. 4, 776: velut nimbum glandis et sagittas ingerebant, Liv. 36, 18, 5: lapidum saxorumque, Flor. 3, 8, 4: Corycius, i. e. of saffron, Mart. 9, 39, 5: et Cilices nimbis hic maduere suis, id. Spect. 3, 8: lucerna nimbis ebria Nicerotianis, full of perfumed unguents, id. ib. 10, 38, 8: purpureus, a great quantity of flowers, Claud. Nupt. Honor. et Mar. 298.—

4 A vessel with many holes in it, used at public shows and at entertainments for sprinkling liquid perfumes: nimbus vitreus, Mart. 14, 112 in lemm.—*

II Trop., a storm, tempest, i. e. sudden misfortune: hunc quidem nimbum cito transisse laetor, Cic. Att. 15, 9, 2.

In the wild

nimbis Statius, Silvae 1.6.21
nimbos Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.788
nimbus Vergil, Georgicon 3.110
nimbique Lucan, Pharsalia 7.845
nimbum Livy, Ab urbe condita 2.21.22.8
nimborum Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 6.505

6 of 213 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. nimbus (scan p. 423; entry #1144).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. nimbus (scan p. 465; entry #7488).

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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.