linum

From Proto-Italic *līno-, likely from Proto-Indo-European *līno-.

Cognates include Old English līne (“line, rope, cord”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽 (lein) and other derivatives of Proto-Germanic *līną, although Pokorny proposed it is a borrowing from Latin.

Although Greek λίνον (línon), Lithuanian linas, Russian лён (ljon) are sometimes listed as cognates, they actually derive from *lino- with a short /i/.

Celtic and Albanian words for linen probably derive from Latin, although Celtic languages retained possibly related cloth terms with a short /i/ (see *linnā).

Considering also the existence of a Latin root with a short /i/ and a /t/ (linteum), reconstruction of a common PIE protoform is impossible, and no similarly sounding terms are attested outside of Europe.

If such roots were borrowed from one or several non-IE languages, as proposed by Machek, locating the source is impossible because cultivation of linen was ubiquitous in the region since the Neolithic.

Alternatively, Fick proposed derivation as a passive past participle from Proto-Indo-European *lei- (“to flow, pour”) because flax is soaked in water during its retting.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.num/, [ˈliː.nũ]

līnum n (genitive līnī); second declension

1. flax
2. linen cloth; garment made of linen
3. rope, line, string, thread, cord, cable
4. net for hunting or fishing
5. wick of a lamp
6. sail

Second declension.

• (rope, cord): chorda, cōpula, fūnis, mītra, restis, retināculum, rudēns

• linum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• linum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• linum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• linum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to open a letter: epistulam solvere, aperire, resignare (of Romans also linum incīdere)
    
• linum in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “līnum”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 344

• IPA^(key): /liˈnum/

linum (plural linums)

1. flax