cacumen

English

Etymology

From Latin cacūmen.

Noun

cacumen (plural cacumina)

1. (obsolete, physics) The smallest possible piece of matter, making up part of an atom.

Latin

Etymology

Cognate to Sanskrit ककुद् (kakúd, “peak, summit, point; head, chief; hump, projection; palate, tongue”), which similarly preserves the original sense of projection in any direction, and the particular sense of the humped shoulders of an animal. The semantics of the denominal verb are influenced by acūmen.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kaˈkuː.men/, [käˈkuːmɛn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kaˈku.men/, [käˈkuːmen]

Noun

cacūmen n (genitive cacūminis); third declension

1. peak, extremity, top, summit

   Synonyms: vertex, apex, culmen, fastīgium, summitās

   Antonym: fundus

2. end, limit

   Synonyms: līmes, fīnis, modus

3. (grammar) accent mark placed over a letter

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cacūmen	cacūmina
Genitive	cacūminis	cacūminum
Dative	cacūminī	cacūminibus
Accusative	cacūmen	cacūmina
Ablative	cacūmine	cacūminibus
Vocative	cacūmen	cacūmina

Derived terms

• cacūminō

Descendants

• English: cacuminous, cacuminal
• Italian: cacume

References

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

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cacūmen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈkumen/ [kaˈku.mẽn]
• Rhymes: -umen
• Syllabification: ca‧cu‧men

Noun

cacumen m (plural cacúmenes)

1. (colloquial) acumen
   • 1877, Benito Pérez Galdós, Gloria:

     Escopetas, carabinas, cuchillos, trampas, mil artificios ingeniosos, ora aprendidos, ora inventados por su propio genial cacumen, y que tenían por objeto apoderarse de la mitad del reino volátil, ocupaban una regular pieza.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (obsolete) peak; summit

Further reading

• “cacumen”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014