februm

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛ.brũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛː.brum]

februm n (genitive febrī); second declension

1. alternative form of februum
   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.13:

     Rex cum ferias menstruas Nonis Februariis edicit, hunc diem februatum appellat; februm Sabini purgamentum

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • Servius the Grammarian, In Vergilii Aeneidem Commentarii 8.343:

     ideoque et puellae de loro capri caeduntur, ut careant sterilitate et fecundae sint: nam pellem ipsam capri ueteres februm uocabant.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Varro claims that the term was used by the Sabines to refer to purification. It is also mentioned, in the Commentaries on the Aeined of Virgil, that the term was used by the "ancients" ("veteres") to refer to goatskin. The text mentions that, from this original use, the term evolved to describe the goatskin thong used at Lupercalia to flog women.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• Annie Cecilia Burman (24 March 2018) De Lingua Sabina: A Reappraisal of the Sabine Glosses‎^[1], →DOI, pages 64-66