balneum

Latin

Alternative forms

balineum
balneus, baneum (nonstandard)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek βαλανεῖον (balaneîon), apparently borrowed early enough for unstressed reduction of the second /a/ to /ĭ/ and then syncope.

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈbal.ne.um/, [ˈbäɫ̪neʊ̃ˑ]

(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈbal.ne.um/, [ˈbälneum]

Noun

balneum, balneae n sg (variously declined, genitive balneī, balneārum); second declension, first declension

bath, bathing place, bathroom
- (Can we date this quote?), Another Letter from Young M. Aurelius to Fronto, quoted in 1879 by Cruttwell and Banton (editors) in Specimens of Roman Literature: Passages Illustrative of Roman Thought and Style, section 188, page 599:
  […] discus crepuit, id est pater meus in balneum transisse nuntiatus est.
  The gong rang, it is announced that my father is going to the bath.

Declension

The inflection of this noun was irregular. Usually, the plural became feminine and first declension with the specific meaning of a public place for bathing (e.g. public baths):

Second-declension noun (neuter) or first-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	balneum	balneae
Genitive	balneī	balneārum
Dative	balneō	balneīs
Accusative	balneum	balneās
Ablative	balneō	balneīs
Vocative	balneum	balneae

Since the Augustan period the following regular declension was sometimes used:

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	balneum	balnea
Genitive	balneī	balneōrum
Dative	balneō	balneīs
Accusative	balneum	balnea
Ablative	balneō	balneīs
Vocative	balneum	balnea

Occasionally, the back-form balnea was used as a singular.

Derived terms

Descendants

Reflexes of the variant baneum:

Italo-Romance:
- Corsican: bagnu
- Italian: bagno (see there for further descendants)
- Sicilian: vagnu
Padanian:
- Friulian: bagn
- Lombard: bagne
- Romansch: bogn
- Venetian: bagno
Gallo-Romance:
- Catalan: bany
- Occitan: banh
- Old French: bain
  - French: bain
  - Walloon: bagn
  - → Middle English: bain
    - English: bain
Ibero-Romance:
- Asturian: bañu
- Old Galician-Portuguese: banno
  - Galician: baño
  - Portuguese: banho
- Old Spanish: banno
  - Ladino: banyo
  - Spanish: baño
Borrowings:
- → Albanian: banjë
- → Proto-Slavic: *baňa (see there for further descendants)

References

“balneum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“balneum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
balneum 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)
balneum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“balneum”, in Samuel Ball Platner (1929) Thomas Ashby, editor, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press

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