cicer

See also: Cicer

Latin

Etymology

A wanderwort akin to Old Armenian սիսեռն (siseṙn, “chickpea”), Ancient Macedonian κίκερροι (kíkerrhoi, “chickpea”), perhaps also Ancient Greek κριός (kriós, “a variety of chickpea”). Compare also Old Georgian ცერცჳ (cercwi, “broad bean; Vicia faba”), whence Georgian ცერცვი (cercvi).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈki.ker/, [ˈkɪkɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃi.t͡ʃer/, [ˈt͡ʃiːt͡ʃer]

Noun

cicer n (genitive ciceris); third declension

1. chickpea
   • Columella, Res Rustica, 2.10.19.

     Cicer aut cicercula, quae piso est similis, mense Ianuario aut Februario seri debet laeto loco caelo umido

     The chick-pea or the chickling-vetch, which has a resemblance to the pea, should be sown in January or February in rich soil if the weather is moist

2. (slang) testicle
   • Juvenal, Satires, 6.373.

     Ergo expectatos ac iussos crescere primum testiculos, postquam coeperunt esse bilibres, tonsoris tantum damno rapit Heliodorus. Mangonum pueros vera ac miserabilis urit debilitas, follisque pudet cicerisque relicti.

     Therefore, the testicles were expected and ordered to grow. After they began to weigh two pounds, Heliodorus tore them off to the detriment of the barber. The loss was real and miserable for the boys of the slave-mongers, it shamed them to be left with only a small purse and a chickpea.

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cicer	cicera
Genitive	ciceris	cicerum
Dative	cicerī	ciceribus
Accusative	cicer	cicera
Ablative	cicere	ciceribus
Vocative	cicer	cicera

Derived terms

• cicercula
• > Vulgar Latin: *cicerō (inherited)
  • Catalan: cigró, ciuró
• Cicerō

Descendants

• Aromanian: tseatsiri
• Dalmatian: cič
• Old French: ceire, çoire, cice
  • French: pois chiche
    • English: chickpea
• Italian: cece, cecio
  • Romanian: cece
• Ligurian: çéixou
• Piedmontese: cèis, cise
• Mozarabic: *čičar
  • → Catalan: xítxero
  • → Galician: chícharo
  • → Spanish: chícharo
  • → Portuguese: chícharo
• Occitan: céser
• Sardinian: cìxiri
• Sicilian: cìciru
• Venetian: cexarìna
• → Albanian: qiqër, qiq
• → Proto-West Germanic: *kikerā (see there for further descendants)

References

• “cicer”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cicer”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cicer in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.