promunturium

== Latin == === Alternative forms === prōmuntorium, prōmontorium, prōmonturium, promunctorium === Etymology === Unclear. The first element can be identified as the prefix prō-. Although the end of the word resembles the suffix -tōrium, the spelling with -torium seems to postdate that with -turium, and the word scans in Ovid Metamorphoses 15.709 as prōmuntŭrĭumque (per Müller, who rejects the alternative of reading this line with synizesis as prōmuntūr.jumque). The second element is typically considered to be mōns, montis (“mountain”). The /u/ could have developed by vowel reduction (which was a regular sound change in non-initial syllables); alternatively, the variation between /o/ and /u/ in this word could be akin to that seen in some other words before a nasal in a closed syllable (even a word-initial syllable) such as frōns/frūns. Lewis and Short (1879) and Gaffiot (1934) favor a derivation from prōmineō (“project, jut out”) (ultimately derived, like mōns, from Proto-Indo-European *men-); however, Ernout and Meillet (1985) consider this difficult. De Vaan, noting that -tōrium is typically affixed to verb bases, proposes an alternative etymology from prōmoneō (“warn”) via contraction of *prōmonetōriom, with the idea that a word meaning "warner" might be used to refer to a "'signpost' in the landscape". === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [proː.mʊnˈtʊ.ri.ũː] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [pro.munˈtuː.ri.um] === Noun === prōmunturium n (genitive prōmunturiī or prōmunturī); second declension peak, ridge, highest part of a mountain chain. cape, headland, promontory, ness ==== Declension ==== Second-declension noun (neuter). 1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age). ==== Descendants ==== === References === === Further reading === “promunturium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “promunturium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers “promunturium”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎[2], London: Macmillan and Co.