spurium

See also: Spurium

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈspʊ.ri.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈspuː.ri.um]

Etymology 1

Unclear, perhaps from a derivation of Ancient Greek σπορά (sporá, “seed”) like σποραῖον (sporaîon), but transmitted by Plutarch’s Questions 103 as Sabine, thus guessed from Etruscan, and perhaps natively related to spurcus (“foul”) of a suffix like murcus and to spurius (“bastard”).

Noun

spurium n (genitive spuriī or spurī); second declension (Late Latin, rare)

1. pudendum muliebre
2. a marine animal of similar shape

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	spurium	spuria
genitive	spuriī spurī1	spuriōrum
dative	spuriō	spuriīs
accusative	spurium	spuria
ablative	spuriō	spuriīs
vocative	spurium	spuria

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

Etymology 2

Adjective

spurium

1. inflection of spurius:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

References

• “spurium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “spurium”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Ernout, Alfred; Meillet, Antoine (1985), “spurium”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 645a