conubium

Latin

Alternative forms

• connū̆bium (less correctly)

Etymology

Equivalent to con- +‎ nūbō (“I marry”) +‎ -ium. Per De Vaan, the cō-n- (found also in other words that are on the surface composed of con- + a stem starting with n-) has been explained as a development from previous *com-sn-. Weiss reconstructs the word as going back to an original form *kon-snoubii̯om. It is not simple to determine the usual length of the vowel in the second syllable using poetic evidence (see below). Long ū would be the regular outcome of a diphthong derived from the e- or o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root (and would get analogical support from the long ū in nūbō); on the other hand, the related words prōnuba and innuba can be cited to support the possibility of a pronunciation with short /u/, which would come from the zero grade of the Proto-Indo-European root.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /koːˈnuː.bi.um/, [koːˈnuːbiʊ̃ˑ] or IPA^(key): /koːˈnu.bi.um/, [koːˈnʊbiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /koˈnu.bi.um/, [koˈnuːbium]
• In poetry, the pronunciation of conubi- in this word varies, apparently based in part on the requirements of the meter. When this sequence is followed by a heavy syllable (as in the nominative/accusative singular, when not elided into a light syllable) the pronunciation cōnūbĭ- is impossible in dactylic verse: the word instead is scanned either with -i- pronounced as a consonant /j/ (making conubi- a spondee, cōnūbj-) or with short /u/ in the second syllable (making conubi- a dactyl, cōnŭbĭ-). It is debated which is correct. The nominative/accusative plural is always scanned as cōnūbĭă when the following word starts with a consonant: this pronunciation unambiguously contains long ū, but length in this context could be coerced by metrical necessity since cōnŭbĭă with three short syllables would not fit in dactylic meter. When the final syllable is elided, the shorter pronunciation as either cōnŭbĭa or cōnūbja can be found.

Noun

cōnū̆bium n (genitive cōnū̆biī or cōnū̆bī); second declension

1. marriage, wedlock
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.316:

     pe͞r cōnūbĭă no͞stră, pĕr i͞nce͞ptōs hy̆mĕna͞eōs

     by our marriage, by the nuptials that have been started

2. (in the plural) ceremony of marriage
3. (poetic) sexual union; confer coniugium
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.166–168:

     [...] Prīma et Tellūs et prōnuba Iūnō
     dant signum; fulsēre ignēs et cōnscius aether
     cōnubiīs, summōque ululārunt vertice nymphae.

     And now Primeval Earth and Juno, Queen of Marriage, give the signal; lightning [torches] flare, [with] high heaven [itself] attendant to the union, and from a lofty peak nymphs wail [a wedding hymn].
     (Divinities and nature enact rituals of Roman weddings – attendants, flaming torches, Hymeneal hymns – as Dido and Aeneas consummate their relationship.)

4. (of plants) an engrafting

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cōnū̆bium	cōnū̆bia
Genitive	cōnū̆biī cōnū̆bī1	cōnū̆biōrum
Dative	cōnū̆biō	cōnū̆biīs
Accusative	cōnū̆bium	cōnū̆bia
Ablative	cōnū̆biō	cōnū̆biīs
Vocative	cōnū̆bium	cōnū̆bia

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

Derived terms

• Castī connū̆biī (of chaste wedlock)
• cōnū̆biālis

Descendants

• Italian: connubio
• Spanish: connubio

See also

• coniugium

Further reading

• “conubium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “conubium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• conubium 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)
• conubium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “conubium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers