Wiktionary

basium

Latin

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Etymology

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Probably borrowed from Celtic, from an expressive root such as Proto-Indo-European *bu-.

Compare Middle Irish pusóc (“kiss”), English buss, French bisou, German Buss (“kiss”), Polish buzia, buziak (“kiss”), Lithuanian bučiúoti (“to kiss”), Albanian buzë (“lip”), Romanian buze (“lips”), and Persian بوس (bus, “kiss”).[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bāsium n (genitive bāsiī or bāsī); second declension

  1. kiss, especially of the hand
    • 15 BCE – 45 CE, Phaedrus, Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque 5.7.28:
      Iactat basia tibicen.
      The flautist blows kisses.
  2. (poetic) kiss of the lips (esp. used this way in Catullus and Martial)
    Synonyms: ōsculum, suāvium
    • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 5.7:
      dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum
      Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred
    • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 7.9:
      tam tē bāsia multa bāsiāre
      For you to kiss so many kisses

Declension

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Second-declension noun (neuter).

singular plural
nominative bāsium bāsia
genitive bāsiī
bāsī1 		bāsiōrum
dative bāsiō bāsiīs
accusative bāsium bāsia
ablative bāsiō bāsiīs
vocative bāsium bāsia

1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

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Descendants

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References

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  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 69

Further reading

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