donum

See also: donům

English

Noun

donum (plural donums)

1. Alternative form of dunam

See also

• regium donum (etymologically unrelated)

Latin

Alternative forms

• dōnom (Early Latin)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *dōnom, from Proto-Indo-European *déh₃nom, from *deh₃-. Cognate to Sanskrit दान (dā́na).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈdoː.num/, [ˈd̪oːnʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdo.num/, [ˈd̪ɔːnum]

Noun

dōnum n (genitive dōnī); second declension

1. gift, present

   Synonyms: datum, pretium, praemium, datiō

   • from the Aeneid (II, 49) by Virgil

     Equo ne credite, Teucri! Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.

     Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Danaans even if they are bearing gifts.

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.377–378:

     flōreat ut tōtō carmen Nāsōnis in aevō,
     sparge, precor, dōnīs pectora nostra tuīs.

     So that the song of Naso may flourish in every age,
     sprinkle, I pray, our hearts with your gifts!
     (Just as Flora (mythology) blooms eternal, Ovid asks the goddess to ensure that his poetry delights his readers – “our hearts” – forever.)

2. offering, sacrifice

   Synonym: oblātiō

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	dōnum	dōna
genitive	dōnī	dōnōrum
dative	dōnō	dōnīs
accusative	dōnum	dōna
ablative	dōnō	dōnīs
vocative	dōnum	dōna

Related terms

• dō
• dōnātiō
• dōnātīvum
• dōnō

Descendants

• Italian: dono
• Occitano-Romance
  • Catalan: do
  • Occitan: don
• Old French: don, dun
  • French: don
  • → Middle English: done
• West Iberian
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: don, dõo
    • Galician: doa
    • Portuguese: dom
  • Spanish: don

References

• “donum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “donum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• donum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934) “donum”, in Dictionnaire illustré latin-français [Illustrated Latin-French Dictionary] (in French), Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • prerogative, privilege: ius praecipuum, beneficium, donum, also immunitas c. Gen.