grumus

Latin

Etymology

Likely from an earlier form *grōmos, related to gremium (see there for more). Compare Proto-Slavic *gromada (“pile”), Proto-Indo-Iranian *grā́mas (“town”).

Noun

grūmus m (genitive grūmī); second declension

1. little heap of earth (not as big as a tumulus)
   • c. 15 BCE, Vitruvius, De architectura 2.1.5:

     Īnsuper autem stipitīs inter sē religantēs mētās efficiunt, quās harundinibus et sarmentīs tegentēs exaggerābant suprā habitātiōnis ē terrā maximōs grūmōs.

     But on the top they make pyramids by fastening together logs, which, covering with reeds and twigs, they piled up over the dwellings as great mounds.

   • 1839 [8th century CE], Paulus Diaconus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Excerpta ex libris Pompeii Festi De significatione verborum, page 96, line 16:

     grūmus terrae collectiō minor tumulō.

     grumus are heaps of earth smaller than tumuli

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	grūmus	grūmī
Genitive	grūmī	grūmōrum
Dative	grūmō	grūmīs
Accusative	grūmum	grūmōs
Ablative	grūmō	grūmīs
Vocative	grūme	grūmī

Derived terms

• grūmulus

Descendants

• Catalan: grum
• Italian: grumo
• French: grumeau
• Galician: grumo, gromo
• Portuguese: gomo
• Romanian: grum
• Spanish: gromo, grumo
• Venetan: grum

References

• “grumus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• grumus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN