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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cena.

dinner/supper, principal Roman meal (evening); course; meal; company at dinner;

4 characters2 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈkeː.na]Classical-Latin[ˈt͡ʃɛː.na]

  1. dinner, supper, principal meal (anciently taken at noon, afterwards later)

    declension-1

  2. gwestva (a duty levied by Welsh kings twice a year upon the free men of their kingdom)

    Medieval-Latin · declension-1 · historical
Where this word comes from

From Old Latin cesna, from Proto-Italic *kertsnā (compare Umbrian śesna, Oscan 𐌊𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌍𐌖 (kersnu)), from Proto-Indo-European *kért-sneh₂ (“portion”), from root *(s)kert- (“to cut”), from *(s)ker-. Regarding the phonological development, De Vaan notes that original *-rsn- sequences otherwise yield Latin *-rn- (e. g. perna < *tpḗrsneh₂). Therefore, in Proto-Italic, the *-r- and *-n- must have been separated by an extra vowel or consonant sound that was lost after the regular change of original *-rsn- to Latin *-rn-. Afterwards, the new sequence *kersnā would have evolved into *keznā, before then undergoing deletion of the sibilant and compensatory lengthening (e.g. prīmus < *prīzmos). For cognates, compare Lithuanian kérti, Armenian քերթել (kʻertʻel, “to skin”), Sanskrit कृन्तति (kṛntáti, “he cuts (in pieces)”). Within Latin, related to cortex, scortum.

verb[ˈkeː.na]Classical-Latin[ˈt͡ʃɛː.na]

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of cēnō

    active · form-of · imperative · present · second-person · singular
Where this word comes from

From Old Latin cesna, from Proto-Italic *kertsnā (compare Umbrian śesna, Oscan 𐌊𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌍𐌖 (kersnu)), from Proto-Indo-European *kért-sneh₂ (“portion”), from root *(s)kert- (“to cut”), from *(s)ker-. Regarding the phonological development, De Vaan notes that original *-rsn- sequences otherwise yield Latin *-rn- (e. g. perna < *tpḗrsneh₂). Therefore, in Proto-Italic, the *-r- and *-n- must have been separated by an extra vowel or consonant sound that was lost after the regular change of original *-rsn- to Latin *-rn-. Afterwards, the new sequence *kersnā would have evolved into *keznā, before then undergoing deletion of the sibilant and compensatory lengthening (e.g. prīmus < *prīzmos). For cognates, compare Lithuanian kérti, Armenian քերթել (kʻertʻel, “to skin”), Sanskrit कृन्तति (kṛntáti, “he cuts (in pieces)”). Within Latin, related to cortex, scortum.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.