LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

ovum

ovum

egg

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

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 49 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. ovum — de Vaan

ovum 'egg' [n. o] (Enn.+) Pit *6wQ)om» PIE *h2ouiom 'egg'. IE cognates: OW i/i, MW wy [m.], OCo. uy, Co. oyy Bret uy> vi 'egg' < PCI. *auio-; Av. aim (acc.sg.), Khot. ahaa-y MP xayag, Khwar. y'k < PIr. *auia(-ka)-\ Gn φόν (Ion.-Att), ώόν (Hell.), ώΐον (Sappho); Arm./ow, gen./ovwy < *ioio- « *<5ro-; VoJajo\jaje (obs.), SCr Joje 'egg' < PS1. *aje9 OCS ajce, Ru. jajco, Cz. vejce 'egg' < PSL *ajbce; Alb. ve, voe; … — [de Vaan, s.v. ovum, p. 452]

2. ōvum — Lewis & Short

ōvum, i, n.w)o/n, i. e. *wv*o*n.

I Lit., an egg: ovum parere, to lay, Cic. Ac. 2, 18, 57; Varr. R. R. 3, 9, 8: edere, Col. 8, 3, 4: ponere, Ov. M. 8, 258: efferre, Verg. G. 1, 379: eniti, Col. 8, 11, 8 sq.: facere, Varr. R. R. 3, 9, 17: pullos ex ovis excuderunt, to hatch, Cic. N. D. 2, 52, 130 B. and K. (al. excluserunt): incubare ova, to sit on, brood on, hatch, Varr. R. R. 3, 9, 8; 12; for which: incubare ovis, Col. 8, 11, 14: suppovere ova, id. 8, 6, 1: an pulli rostellis ova percuderint ... nam saepe propter crassitudinem putaminum erumpere non queunt, Col. 8, 5, 14: quatenus in pullos animalis vertier ova cernimus alituum, Lucr. 2, 927.—Also of the spawn of fish, etc.: etsi pisces, ova cum genuerunt relinquunt, Cic. N. D. 2, 51, 129: testudines autem et crocodilos dicunt ... obruere ova, id. ib. 2, 52, 129: saepius et tectis penetralibus extulit ova ... formica, Verg. G. 1, 380; Plin. 10, 52, 74, § 145: ovi putamen, an eggshell, Col. 8, 5, 14: cortex ovi, Ser. Samm. 28, 531.—The Romans usually began their meals with eggs and ended them with fruit; hence, integram famem ad ovum affero, until the egg, i. e. the beginning of the meal, Cic. Fam. 9, 20, 1; and: ab ovo Usque ad mala citaret, Io Bacche! i. e. from the beginning to the end, Hor. S. 1, 3, 6.—Acc. to the myth, Leda became pregnant by Jupiter, who visited her in the shape of a swan; she laid two eggs, one by Jupiter, and the other by Tyndarus; from the former of which were born Pollux and Helen, and from the latter Castor and Clytaemnestra; hence, nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo, Hor. A. P. 147: Castor gaudet equis, ovo prognatus eodem Pugnis, from the same egg, i. e. of the same parentage, id. S. 2, 1, 26.—In the circus seven wooden eggs were set up, one of which was removed at the completion of each circuit; hence, non modo ovum illud sublatum est, quod, etc., Varr. R. R. 1, 2: ova ad notas curriculis numerandis, Liv. 41, 27, 6.—
II Transf.
A An egg-shell (as a measure), an egg-shellful, Plin. 22, 25, 67, § 137.—
B An egg-shape, oval shape, oval, Calp. Ecl. 7, 34.

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. ovum (scan pp. 452-453; entry #1226). Root candidates: *auio-, *ioio-, *ajjaz-.

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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.