mentum

Learned borrowing from Latin mentum (“the chin”). Doublet of menton.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛn.təm/
• Rhymes: -ɛntəm

mentum (plural menta)

1. (anatomy) The chin.
2. (malacology) A chin-like projection below the mouth of certain mollusks.
3. (entomology) The central part of the labium in insects.
4. (botany) A projection in front of the flower in some orchids.

• postmentum
• prementum
• submentum

• mental
• mento-

• “mentum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “mentum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• nummet

From Proto-Italic *məntom, from Proto-Indo-European *mn̥tós (“protruding”), from *men- (“to project”). Cognate with Proto-Germanic *munþaz.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛn.tũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛn̪.t̪um]

mentum n (genitive mentī); second declension

1. (literally) the chin; the chin with the hair that grows on it; the beard
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 6.809:

     nosco crinis incanaque menta regis Romani primam qui legibus urbem fundabit, Curibus paruis et paupere terra missus in imperium magnum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (transferred sense, architecture) the projecting part of a cornice casting off the rain, the coping
   • c. 15 BCE, Vitruvius, De architectura 4.3.6:

     Reliqua spatia, quod latiores sint metopae quam triglyphi, pura relinquantur aut numina scalpantur, ad ipsumque mentum coronae incidatur linea quae scotia dicitur.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• Vulgar Latin: *mentō, *mentōnem
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: mento
    • Sicilian: mentu
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Ligurian: manton, menton
    • Piedmontese: manton, menton
  • Gallo-Romance:
    • Old French: menton, mentun
      • French: menton
        • → English: menton
        • → Esperanto: mentono
          • Ido: mentono
        • → Spanish: mentón
  • Occitano-Romance:
    • Catalan: mentó
    • Occitan: menton
• → English: mentum (learned)
• → Portuguese: mento (learned)

• “mentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "mentum", 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)
• mentum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to see with the mind's eye: oculis mentis videre aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) to be of sane mind: mentis compotem esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to be of sound mind: sanae mentis esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to obscure the mental vision: mentis quasi luminibus officere (vid. sect. XIII. 6) or animo caliginem offundere
    
  • (ambiguous) innate ideas: notiones animo (menti) insitae, innatae
    
  • (ambiguous) to lose one's composure; to be disconcerted: de statu suo or mentis deici (Att. 16. 15)
    
  • (ambiguous) to lose one's head, be beside oneself: sui (mentis) compotem non esse
    
  • (ambiguous) enthusiasm: ardor, inflammatio animi, incitatio mentis, mentis vis incitatior