cyclaminos

• cyclamen, cyclamīnon, cyclamīnum

From the Ancient Greek κῠκλᾰ́μῑνος (kŭklắmīnos).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ky.kɫaˈmiː.nɔs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃi.klaˈmiː.nos]

cyclamīnos f (genitive cyclamīnī); second declension

1. cyclamen, sowbread, Cyclamen hederifolium or Cyclamen repandum
   • Item cyclamini radix contra serpentes omnes. Folia habet minora quam hedera nigrioraque et tenuiora, sine angulis, in quibus albicant maculae, caule exiguo, inani, floribus purpureis, radice lata, ut rapum videri possit, cortice nigro. Nascitur in umbrosis. A nostris tuber terrae vocatur, in omnibus serenda domibus, si verum est, ubi sata sit, nihil nocere mala medicamenta; amuletum vocant. Narrant et ebrietatem repraesentari adda in vinum. Radix et siccata, scillae modo concisa reponitur; decoquitur eadem ad crassitudinem mellis. Suum tamen venenum ei est, traduntque, si praegnans radicem eam transgrediatur, abortum fieri. (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 25, 67)

     The root of cyclamen also is beneficial for the bites of any kind of snake. The plant has smaller, darker and thinner leaves than those of ivy, with no corners but with white spots; the stem is short and hollow, the blossom purple, the root so broad that it might be taken for that of the turnip, and having a dark skin. It grows in shaded spots, is called by our countrymen tuber terrae, and ought to be grown in every home if it is true that wherever it grows no evil spells do any harm. They call it ‘amulet’, and say that if it is added to wine intoxication comes at once. The root is also dried, cut up fine as is done with the squill, and then stored away. This is boiled down to the consistency of honey. It has however a poisonous quality of its own, and it is said that if a woman with child steps over this root she miscarries.

   • AD 4th–5th CC., Marcellus Empiricus Burdigalensis (author), Georgius Helmreich (editor), De medicamentis in Marcelli de medicamentis liber (1889), chapter i: “Ad capitis dolorem”, § 7 (page 27, lines 11–14):

     Per nares ergo purgatur caput his rebus infusis per cornu, quod Graece rhinenchytes vocatur: Hederae suco per se vel betae suco cum exiguo flore aeris vel cyclaminis suco mixto lacte aut aqua pari mensura.

• Nouns of feminine gender are rare in this declension; cyclaminos inherits its feminine gender from the Ancient Greek κυκλάμινος.

Second-declension noun (Greek-type).

• Italian: ciclamino
• → Ladin: ciclamin
• → Mòcheno: ciclamin
• ⇒ New Latin: cyclamen (see there for further descendants)

• “cyclămīnŏs”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cyclămĕn in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette: “460/3”
• “cyclamīnos” on page 480/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)