lympha

Latin

Alternative forms

• limpha
• lumpa

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ-

Ancient Greek νῠ́μφη (nŭ́mphē)bor.

Latin lympha

Borrowed from Ancient Greek νῠ́μφη (nŭ́mphē, “bride, young girl; spring water”). Doublet of nympha.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈlym.pʰa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈlim.fa]

Noun

lympha f (genitive lymphae); first declension

1. (poetic) water, especially clear river or spring water.
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 4.635:

      […]; dīc corpus properet fluviālī spargere lymphā, et pecudēs sēcum et mōnstrāta piācula dūcat: […]

      […]; tell her to hasten to sprinkle her body with river water, and to lead the cattle and the offerings ordained for atonement: […]

2. (medicine) water in dropsical people.

Inflection

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	lympha	lymphae
genitive	lymphae	lymphārum
dative	lymphae	lymphīs
accusative	lympham	lymphās
ablative	lymphā	lymphīs
vocative	lympha	lymphae

Derived terms

• lymphāceus (adjective)
• lymphō (verb)

Related terms

• lymphāticus
• lymphātiō
• lymphātus
• lymphor

Descendants

Descendants

• → Catalan: limfa
• → Chinese: 淋巴 (línbā)
• → French: lymphe
  • → English: lymph, lymphe (rare, archaic)
• → Galician: linfa
• → Italian: linfa
• → Portuguese: linfa
• → Romanian: limfă
• → Spanish: linfa

References

• “lympha”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lympha”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “lympha”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• lympha in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung