culmus

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱolh₂mos. Cognate with Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos, “reed, cane”) (whence the borrowed doublet calamus) and Proto-Germanic *halmaz, whence English haulm.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkul.mus/, [ˈkʊɫ̪mʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkul.mus/, [ˈkulmus]

Noun

culmus m (genitive culmī); second declension

1. stalk, stem (of grass etc.)
2. hay
3. straw
4. thatch

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	culmus	culmī
genitive	culmī	culmōrum
dative	culmō	culmīs
accusative	culmum	culmōs
ablative	culmō	culmīs
vocative	culme	culmī

Descendants

• Galician: colmo
• Portuguese: colmo
• Spanish: cuelmo
• → English: culm
• → Italian: culmo
• → Sicilian: curma, curmu
• → Spanish: culmo

References

• “culmus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “culmus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• culmus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• culmus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.