homo
From earlier hemō, from Proto-Italic *hemō, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰm̥mṓ (“earthling”), from *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”), whence Latin humus. Cognates include Old Lithuanian žmuõ (“man”), Gothic𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 (guma) and Old English guma (“man”). See also nēmō (“no one”), from *ne hemō.
The phenomenon of a derivational relationship between the words for both earth and man is also seen in Semitic languages: Hebrew אָדָם (adám, “man”), אֲדָמָה (adamá, “soil”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈho.moː/, [ˈhɔmoː] or IPA(key): /ˈho.mo/, [ˈhɔmɔ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈo.mo/, [ˈɔːmo]
- Note: iambic shortening of the final vowel before a following (primarily or secondarily) stressed syllable is very common, but in hexameter poetry this variation may simply have been lexicalised as arbitrary license.
Noun
homō m (genitive hominis); third declension
- a human being, man, human, person [ quotations ▼]
- Homō hominī lupus (proverb).
- Man is a wolf to man.
- Hominēs, dum docent, discunt.
- While teaching, people also learn themselves.
- a male human being, man [ quotations ▼]
- (address) man, fellow, mate, pal, bud, partner, dude (a form of address to male peers, especially by another male) [ quotations ▼]
- (address) used in the vocative expression "mi homo" as a form of address to a man by a woman [ quotations ▼]
- (Medieval Latin) husband
Usage notes
- Homō has the basic sense of "human being"[1] and is often used generically to mean “Man” or “men” in the broad sense of "humanity", encompassing both male and female human beings. It is not typically used to specify or emphasize male as opposed to female sex: the usual terms to express “man” in the sense “male” are vir (“adult male human being”) or mās (“male”). There are rare examples in early Latin of homō being used in contrast to an explicitly female term such as mulier (“woman”), such as Plautus Cistellaria 723, but this only becomes frequent in late Latin.[2]
- When referring to specific human beings, homō is more often applied to male rather than female persons in the corpus of ancient Latin texts. For Romans, the use of homō versus vir when referring to a male human being was influenced by the differing social connotations of the two words: vir tends to be reserved as a positive designation for men of the Roman upper class, whereas the more generic term homō is frequently used to refer to men of lower social orders or foreigners,[3] and also to refer to upper class men in contexts where the positive connotations of vir would be out of place. For example, homō rather than vir tends to be used by Cicero in connection with pejorative adjectives.[4] There seems to have been a similar distinction in social connotation between mulier (“woman”), the general word for 'woman' that could be used in neutral or negative contexts, and fēmina (“female, woman”), which had positive, aristocratic overtones when used as a designation for a woman.[5]
- Homō is claimed to be of common (epicene) gender by several grammarians, albeit with limited external supporting evidence - see quotations. When used with a modifier and referring to a woman, nevertheless agrees in the masculine gender (like German Mensch, Russian челове́к (čelovék)) (Charisius, GL I, p.102.20–103.1 = pp.130.19–31.2 B.).
Declension
Third-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | homō | hominēs |
| Genitive | hominis | hominum |
| Dative | hominī | hominibus |
| Accusative | hominem | hominēs |
| Ablative | homine | hominibus |
| Vocative | homō | hominēs |