Etymology
From Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely”),[1] making it cognate with Proto-Germanic *lepô (“lip”), although (as with many other roots reconstructed with *b) there is some doubt about whether this root goes back to Proto-Indo-European.[2][3] Lab- may be the regular outcome of zero-grade tautosyllabic *l̥b.-.[4] Doublet of labrum.
References
Olander, Thomas (2020) “To *b or Not to *b: Proto-Indo-European *b in a Phylogenetic Perspective”, in Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics, volume 133
Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 146 De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “labium”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 319 Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1991) The reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European laryngeals in Latin (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 2), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 483
Further reading
- “labium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “labium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- labium 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)
- labium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.