FromProto-Italic*līnom, likely fromProto-Indo-European*līnom.

Cognates includeOld Englishlīne(“line, rope, cord”),Gothic𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽(lein) and other derivatives ofProto-Germanic*līną, although Pokorny proposed it is a borrowing from Latin.

Although Greekλίνον(línon), Lithuanianlinas, Russianлён(ljon) are sometimes listed as cognates, they actually derive from*lino- with a short /i/.

Celtic and Albanian words for linen probably derive from Latin, although Celtic languages retained possibly related cloth terms with a short /i/ (see*linnā).

Considering also the existence of a Latin root with a short /i/ and a /t/ (linteum), reconstruction of a common PIE protoform is impossible, and no similarly sounding terms are attested outside of Europe.

If such roots were borrowed from one or several non-IE languages, as proposed by Machek, locating the source is impossible because cultivation of linen was ubiquitous in the region since the Neolithic.

Alternatively, Fick proposed derivation as a passive past participle fromProto-Indo-European*lei-(“to flow, pour”) because flax is soaked in water during itsretting.

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key): [ˈliː.nũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key): [ˈliː.num]

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linum

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līnum n (genitivelīnī);second declension

1. flax
2. linencloth;garment made of linen
3. rope,line,string,thread,cord,cable
   • 8CE,Ovid,Fasti6.239–240:

     fēsta diēs illīs, quīlīna madentia dūcunt,
     quīque tegunt parvīs aera recurva cibīs

     The day [is] a festival for those who pull [their] drippinglines, and who hide [their] hooked bronze in little bits [of] food.
     (In other words, a holiday for fishermen, whosehooks are drawn withdripping lines. Although fishermen also usedripping nets, in that caserētia madentia would seem more likely word choices.)

4. net forhunting orfishing
5. wick of alamp
6. sail

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• (rope, cord):chorda,cōpula,fūnis,mītra,restis,retināculum,rudēns

• “linum”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “linum”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "linum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange,Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “linum”, inGaffiot, Félix (1934),Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894),Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London:Macmillan and Co.
  • to open a letter:epistulam solvere, aperire, resignare (of Romans alsolinum incīdere)
    
• “linum”, inHarry Thurston Peck, editor (1898),Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “līnum”, inEtymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill,→ISBN,page344

• IPA^(key): /liˈnum/

linum (genitivelinuma,plurallinums)

1. flax

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