Denotes transitive verbs in the trade pidgins used between English-speakers and indigenous populations; used derogatorily by extension in English by addition to any verb, transitive or not.
1871, Mrs. Edward Millett,An Australian parsonage; or, The settler and the savage in Western Australia, page129:
Having finished her return of deaths, she went on to say "Black fellow sick—white lady fowl sendum—white lady kangaroo sendum—master all self eatum—" but here she paused and made an exception in favour of the matron, expressed by the words " Missis not eatum—missis good fellow."
1896, F J Stimsom,King Noanett: A Story of Old Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay, page254:
"Givum dinner; smokum pipe," was all that we could get out of Quatchett.
As a variant of-heim through reduction to[əm] and subsequent backing. Compare-em. This is the only origin in most areas, but along the North Sea coast, where the suffix is most frequent, it sometimes goes back toOld Frisian-em, -um(dative plural ending), equivalent to German-en as in-hausen. Distinguishing both origins is often impossible, however.
-om (conditioned variant used after -v-, -qu-, -gu-, -u-up through the middle of the first century AD)
-ûm,-ôm;-ūm,-ōm (variant spellings previously used in specific contexts in New Latin and modern editions of Old/Classical/Late Latin works. See usage notes.)
Sic videtur mihi, quoniam finitum et infinitum habeat dissimilitudinem, non debere utrumque item dici, eo magis quod in ipsis vocabulis ubi additur certus numerus miliar⟨i⟩is aliter atque in reliquis dicitur: nam sic loquontur, hoc mille denarium, non hoc mille denari⟨orum⟩, et haec duo milia denarium, non duo milia denari⟨orum⟩. Si esset denarii in recto casu atque infinitam multitudinem significaret, tunc in patrico denariorum dici oportebat; et non solum in denariis, victoriatis, drachmis, nummis, sed etiam in viris idem servari oportere, cum dicimus iudicium fuisse triumvirum, decem⟨virum, centum⟩-virum, non ⟨triumvirorum, decemvirorum⟩, centum-virorum.
1938 translation by Roland G. Kent
Thus it seems to me that since the definite and the indefinite have an inherent difference, the two ought not to be spoken in the same fashion, the more so because in the words themselves, when they are attached to a definite number in the thousands, a form is used which is not the same as that used in other expressions. For they speak thus:mille denarium 'thousand of denarii,' notdenariorum, and twomilia denarium 'thousands of denarii,' notdenariorum. If it weredenarii in the nominative and it denoted an indefinite quantity, then it ought to bedenariorum in the genitive; and the same distinction must be preserved, it seems to me, not only indenarii, victoriati, drachmae, and nummi, but also inviri, when we say that there has been a decision of the triumvirs, the decemvirs, the centumvirs, all of which have the genitivevirum and notvirorum.
Atque etiam a quibusdam sero iam emendatur antiquitas, qui haec reprehendunt. Nam pro 'deum atque hominum fidem', 'deorum' aiunt. Ita credo hoc illi nesciebant: an dabat hanc licentiam consuetudo? Itaque idem poeta qui inusitatius contraxerat: "Patris mei meum factum pudet" pro 'meorum factorum' et "Texitur, exitium examen rapit" pro 'exitiorum', non dicit 'liberum', ut plerique loquimur, cum 'cupidos liberum' aut 'in liberum loco' dicimus, sed ut isti volunt: "Neque tuom unquam in gremium extollas liberorum ex te genus" et idem: "Namque Aesculapi liberorum." At ille alter inChryse non solum: "Cives, antiqui amici maiorum meum" quod erat usitatum, sed durius etiam: "Consilium socii, augurium atque extum interpretes", idemque pergit: "Postquam prodigium horriferum, portentum pavos"; quae non sane sunt in omnibus neutris usitata. Nec enim dixerim tam lubenter 'armum iudicium',—etsi est apud eundem: "Nihilne ad te de iudicio armum accidit?"—quam 'centuriam', ut censoriae tabulae locuntur, 'fabrum et procum' audeo dicere, non 'fabrorum' et 'procorum'; planeque 'duorumvirorum iudicium' aut 'triumvirorum capitalium' aut 'decemvirorum stlitibus iudicandis' dico nunquam. Atqui dixit Accius: "Video sepulcra dua duorum corporum" idemque "Mulier una duom virum". Quid verum sit intellego; sed alias ita loquor ut concessum est, ut hoc vel 'pro deum' dico vel 'pro deorum', alias ut necesse est, cum triumvirum, non virorum, et sestertium, nummum, non sestertiorum, nummorum, quod in his consuetudo varia non est.
And even the ancients are corrected now, late in the day, by certain people who find fault with these things. So for 'deum atque hominum fidem', they say 'deorum'. I suppose those of the past did not know the latter usage; or did custom grant this license? Thus the same poet who had used the more unusual contractions "Patris mei meum factum pudet" for 'meorum factorum' and "Texitur, exitium examen rapit" for 'exitiorum', did not say 'liberum', as very many of us do, when we say 'cupidos liberum' or 'in liberum loco', but said 'liberorum' as those people want: "Neque tuom unquam in gremium extollas liberorum ex te genus" and again "Namque Aesculapi liberorum." On the other hand, that other poet in Chryses not only says "Cives, antiqui amici maiorum meum", which was customary then, but also more harshly "Consilium socii, augurium atque extum interpretes", and then proceeds to say "Postquam prodigium horriferum, portentum pavos", which certainly are not customary in all neuter nouns. And truly I would not so freely say 'armum iudicium'—although it is found in the same author: "Nihilne ad te de iudicio armum accidit?"—as I would say 'centuriam fabrum et procum', as the census records say, not 'fabrorum' and 'procorum'; and by all means I never say 'duorumvirorum iudicium' or 'triumvirorum capitalium' or 'decemvirorum stlitibus iudicandis'. And yet Accius said "Video sepulcra dua duorum corporum" and also "Mulier una duom virum". I know what is correct, but sometimes I speak in such a manner as is allowed, such as in this case I say either 'pro deum' or 'pro deorum [fidem]', sometimes as is required, when I say triumvirum, not virorum, and sestertium, nummum, not sestertiorum, nummorum, because in these cases usage is not variable.
Latin genitive plural forms take the ending-um either by itself, or with additional preceding material (generally determined by the word's conjugation class). First and second declension nouns and adjectives usually have genitive plural forms ending in-ārum and-ōrum, but some words can take the short ending-um (without preceding-ār-/-ōr-) instead: this is common with words denoting weights, measures and monetary value and with distributive numerals.[1][2]
In the second declension, the short genitive plural in-um can be found:
indeus anddīvus (the latter having the archaic genitive plural formdivom, spelled with O due to the preceding V)
in various other words, especially in poetry
In the first declension, the short genitive plural in-um can be found:
in the Greek-derived measure wordsamphora anddrachma (less frequently thandrachmārum)
in dactylic verse, in compounds of-cola and-gena
in dactylic verse, in some masculine Greek proper nouns, such as patronymics
The spelling-ûm (or-ôm after V/U), introduced in the Renaissance, is used in some New Latin texts for forms such asamphorûm anddeûm. These forms were misinterpreted as contractions ofamphorārum anddeōrum and were therefore incorrectly assumed to end in -ūm (with a vowel long by nature) in contrast to -ŭm (with a vowel short by nature, as in accusative singulardeum). Compare the use of the circumflex in New Latin to distinguish the ablative ending-â (with long ā) from the nominative/vocative ending-a (with short ă) in first declension singular nouns, or to mark third-person plural perfect forms ending in-ēre, which was assumed to be a "contracted" form of the alternative ending-ērunt (e.g.fuêre, taken to be a contraction offuerent[3]). However, the assumed distinction in vowel length between genitive pluraldeûm with long ū and accusative singulardeum with short ŭ is outdated: according to modern etymological understanding, all Latin words ending in-um, regardless of their case, number or declension, were pronounced in Classical Latin with a short vowel in the final syllable.[4][5] Rather than being contractions, second-declension genitive plural forms in-um such asdeum are archaisms showing the original Proto-Indo-European inflection pattern for nouns of this declension.
Third declension words that have genitive plurals ending in-um as an alternative to-ium have also been spelled with-ûm, again with the justification that the shorter ending is interpreted as being a contraction of the longer variant.[6] Examples arecoelestûm andcaedûm used as spellings of the short genitive plurals ofcoelestis andcaedes (compared to the long formscoelestium andcaedium).[7]
Aside from the contraction hypothesis, the use of the circumflexed spelling-ûm may additionally have been influenced by the use of the circumflex in the spelling of Greek genitive plural forms ending in -ῶν.[8]
^Donaldson, John William (1860),Varronianus: A Critical and Historical Introduction to the Ethnography of Ancient Italy and to the Philological Study of the Latin Language, 3rd edition,page303
^Charles E. Bennett (1907), “Hidden Quantity”, inThe Latin Language – a historical outline of its sounds, inflections, and syntax, Boston: Allyn and Bacon,pages46-48
^Piet Steenbakkers,Spinoza's Ethica from Manuscript to Print: Studies on text, form and related topics, 1994,page 78
^Carey, John (1821),A Clue for Young Latinists, and Non-Latinists, to trace the original forms and signification of nouns and verbs, from their terminations, alphabetically arranged, with explanatory references to the grammar, London,page63
^Walker, William.Some improvements to the art of teaching, especially in the first grounding of a young scholar in grammar learning. Shewing a short, sure, and easie way to bring a scholar to variety and elegancy in writing Latine. Written for the help and ease of all ushers of schools, and country school-masters, and for the use and profit of all younger scholars. 2nd ed. with many additions. 1676.
^Mindaugas Strockis (2007),Klasikinių kalbų kirčio žymėjimo įtaka lietuvių kirčio žymėjimui (PhD dissertation) (in Lithuanian), Vilnius
SeeAppendix:Old Irish affixed pronouns for details on how these forms are used. Note that the so-called “infixed” pronouns are technically prefixes, but they are never the first prefix in a verbal complex.
L means this form triggers lenition. N means this form triggers nasalization (eclipsis) (N) means this form triggers nasalization in some texts but not in others.
Henrik Liljegren; Naseem Haider (2011), “-um”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[1], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
The plural is usually either-um or rarely,-a, e.g.centrum orcentra. In some words it may also be-er, i.e.centrer, cf.-ium which regularly has a plural on-ier, although sometimes also-ium in colloquial language. The Latin plural ending-a is nowadaysproscribed.
