cambium

Borrowed from Late Latin cambium (“a change”), from Gaulish.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkambɪəm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkeə̯m.biˌəm/, /ˈkæm.biˌəm/

cambium (plural cambiums or cambia)

1. (botany) A layer of cells between the xylem and the phloem that is responsible for the secondary growth of roots and stems.
   • 1863, Harland Coultas, What may be learned from a tree

     During winter we perceive no change in the cells of the cambium layer, which are filled with nutritive matter […].

2. (obsolete) One of the humours formerly believed to nourish the bodily organs.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , Bk.I, New York, 2001, p.147:

     The radical or innate is daily supplied by nourishment, which some call cambium, and make those secondary humours of ros and gluten to maintain it […].

From Gaulish cambion, *kambyom (“change”), from Proto-Celtic *kambos (“twisted, crooked”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱh₂mbós, *(s)kh₂mbós (“crooked”), from *(s)kh₂emb- (“to bend, curve”). Cognate with Ancient Greek σκαμβός (skambós, “crooked”), Old Irish camm (“crooked”), Welsh cam (“crooked”), Breton kamm (“crooked”), Old High German skimph (“joke, amusement, pastime”), Swedish skumpa (“to limp”), Persian خم‎ (kham, “curve, crook”). More at change.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkam.bi.um/, [ˈkam.bi.ũ]

cambium n (genitive cambiī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) A change
2. (Late Latin) cambium

Second declension.

• cambiō

• → English: cambium
• → French: cambium
• Italian: cambio
• Portuguese: câmbio
• → Spanish: cambio, cambium

• cambium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• cambium in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Borrowed from Late Latin cambium.

cambium m (plural cambiums)

1. cambium

• cambiar