saeculum

== English == === Etymology === Learned borrowing from Latin saeculum. Doublet of secle. === Noun === saeculum (plural saeculums or saecula) (historical, Ancient Rome) A cyclical period of time, roughly equal to the time needed for the complete renewal of a human population: (originally) Any of a sequence of ages (periods of time) such that each age ends with the death of the last person remaining alive since its beginning, and the end of an age marks the beginning of the next. (by extension) Any of a sequence of ages of set length, used to periodise chronicles and track wars. An approximately 85-year cycle in Strauss-Howe generational theory, a highly controversial sociological theory that postulates that zeitgeist and popular cultural values exist along recurring cycles. ==== Translations ==== === See also === generation === Further reading === Saecular Games on Wikipedia.Wikipedia == Latin == === Alternative forms === saeclum (poetic) sēclum (poetic, rare) sēculum (poetic, rare) === Etymology === From Proto-Italic *saiklom < *saitlom, probably from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂éytlom (“lifetime, lifespan”), from *sh₂ey- (“to bind, knit, tie together, tie to, connect”) + *-tlom (instrumental suffix) (whence Latin -culum), in the sense of successive generations being linked together over time. Compare Lithuanian sėkla (“seed”), Proto-Celtic *saitlom (“life, age”), Gaulish Sētlocenia, Hittite [script needed] (išhi-, “to bind”), Sanskrit सि (si, “to bind”). An alternative theory derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow”). === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈsae̯.kʊ.ɫũː] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈsɛː.ku.lum] === Noun === saeculum n (genitive saeculī); second declension race, breed generation, lifetime the amount of time between an occurrence and the death of the final person who was alive at, or witness to, that occurrence age, time, the times, an era century worldliness; the world ==== Declension ==== Second-declension noun (neuter). ==== Derived terms ==== in saecula saeculorum in saeculum saeculāris ==== Descendants ==== Romance descendants apparently reflect a semi-learned form */ˈsɛkolu/ for expected */ˈsɛklu/. === References === “saeculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “saeculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers "saeculum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887) “saeculum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎[1], London: Macmillan and Co. “saeculum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers “saeculum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin Watkins, Calvert (1985), “sē-”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 61 Tucker, T.G., Etymological Dictionary of Latin, Ares Publishers, 1976 (reprint of 1931 edition). Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN