6

I have the impression that the ending -m appears on neuter nouns (in the nominative/accusative form) only in the second declension, but I don't know whether there are any exceptions. Is there any example of a neuter noun ending in -m that belongs to a declension other than the second?

I know that Latin nouns sometimes had multiple declension patterns or multiple genders. For the purpose of this question, I'd accept a word that belongs to multiple declensions/genders, as long as it's clear that the neuter nominative/accusative form ending in -m isn't just part of a complete regular second-declension paradigm.

If no such words exist, I would be interested in knowing whether there is any etymological explanation.

Improve this question
0

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5
  • Bethlehem, n., indecl. Though a borrowing, clearly does not belong to the second declension. Note that there is also the alternative Bethlehemum, -i, which does belong to the 2nd.

I suspect there are no native Latin words, but it's just a suspicion with no etymological explanation. I'm certain other users could help with that. We have a number of experts in PIE here)

Improve this answer
2
  • If you're looking for the etymology, it's from Hebrew beith leħem, "house of bread".
    – Draconis ♦
    Feb 27, 2019 at 21:03
  • 1
    Thanks! Even though the -m here clearly does not originate from the Indo-European -m suffix, there's the interesting mention of the adjective "Bethlaeus" where the "m" is removed, which suggests to me that Romans might not have necessarily felt a strong distinction between word-final -m here and in other words.
    – Asteroides
    Feb 27, 2019 at 21:03
5

The etymological explanation (which of course only takes the question a stage further back) is that in PIE, thematic inanimate nouns had the nom./acc. sg. ending *-om, while athematic inanimate nouns had a zero ending. The former became Latin second-declension neuters, the latter third-declension neuters.

This is only a partial explanation in that one might have expected some athematic inanimates with a stem ending in -m to have survived in the Latin third declension, but if there were any such nouns, none seem to have survived into Latin.

Improve this answer
4

I hadn't noticed this when I posted the question, but it turned out that the Wiktionary list that I mentioned in the original question contained at least one genuine word of interest. The word jūgerum/iūgerum is a second-declension form, but it seems that in the plural oblique cases we almost always see third-declension forms (jūgerum and jūgeribus; with jūgerīs as an alternative ablative form attested in Varro's Res Rusticae). This is confirmed by the Lewis and Short entry.

Wiktionary says that there is no attested third-declension singular nominative/accusative form.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.