Wiktionary

ieiunus

Latin

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From the earlier iaiūnus with palatal vowel assimilation,[1] for Proto-Italic *jagjūnos, remade from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yaǵ-yu-s, from *h₁yaǵ- (“to sacrifice”).

Pronunciation

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  • (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /i̯ei̯ˈi̯uː.nus/, [i̯ɛi̯ˈi̯uːnʊs̠]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /jeˈju.nus/, [jeˈjuːnus]
  • Older: (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /i̯ai̯ˈi̯uː.nus/, [i̯äi̯ˈi̯uːnʊs̠]
  • Given the etymological development from a form with /ajj/,[1] the E in the first syllable was likely a short vowel.[2] The imperial grammarian Terentianus Maurus cites the related word ieiūnium as an example of a word that contains a short vowel followed by double /jj/.[3] In the middle of a word, [j] was regularly pronounced as a double consonant between vowels, so the heavy scansion of the first syllable in poetry does not indicate the length of the vowel. Some dictionaries such as Lewis and Short mark the E with a macron, which may be a misleading indication of the heavy scansion of the first syllable: compare peior (pronounced with /ejj/, but written in Lewis and Short as 'pējor').

Adjective

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ieiūnus (feminine ieiūna, neuter ieiūnum); first/second-declension adjective

  1. fasting, abstinent, hungry
  2. (figuratively) dry, barren, unproductive
  3. (figuratively) scanty, meager
  4. insignificant, trifling

Declension

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First/second-declension adjective.

singular plural
masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter
nominative ieiūnus ieiūna ieiūnum ieiūnī ieiūnae ieiūna
genitive ieiūnī ieiūnae ieiūnī ieiūnōrum ieiūnārum ieiūnōrum
dative ieiūnō ieiūnae ieiūnō ieiūnīs
accusative ieiūnum ieiūnam ieiūnum ieiūnōs ieiūnās ieiūna
ablative ieiūnō ieiūnā ieiūnō ieiūnīs
vocative ieiūne ieiūna ieiūnum ieiūnī ieiūnae ieiūna

Derived terms

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Descendants

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “ieiūnus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 296-297: “The two oldest words are then iaiūnus and iaientāre, phonologically /iaii-/”
  2. ^ András Cser (2016) Aspects of the Phonology and Morphology of Classical Latin (PhD thesis), Budapest, page 11: “jejunus [jejjuːnus] ‘hungry, fasting’”
  3. ^ W. Sidney Allen (1978) Vox Latina, 2nd edition, page 97:
    Ter. Maurus, K. vi, 343 (see p. 39).
    i media cum conlocatur hinc et hinc uocalium,
    Troia siue Maia dicas, peior aut ieiunium, nominum primas uidemus esse uocales breues,
    i tamen sola sequente duplum habere temporis.

Further reading

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  • “ieiunus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
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