palumbes

• palumba, palumbis, palumbus

Possibly a derivative of Proto-Italic *palwos, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥H-wo- (“dark-colored, gray”), from *pelH- (“gray, pale”), owing to the color of the pigeon's plumage. Compare Ancient Greek πέλειᾰ (péleiă, “rock pigeon”) and Old Prussian poalis (“pigeon”); see palleō (“to be pale”) for more potential cognates.^[1] However, the suffix is unexplained and resembles that in Ancient Greek κολυμβῐ́ς (kolumbĭ́s, “diver, little grebe, pigeon”), which may point to substrate origin.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [paˈɫʊm.beːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [paˈlum.bes]

palumbēs m or f (genitive palumbis); third declension

1. woodpigeon / wood-pigeon / wood pigeon; ring dove

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

• “palumbes”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “palumbes”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• palumbes in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.