agmen

Latin

Etymology

From agō (“do, act”) +‎ -men (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈaɡ.men/, [ˈäɡmɛn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈaɡ.men/, [ˈäɡmen]

Noun

agmen n (genitive agminis); third declension

1. a train of something; multitude, host, crowd, flock
2. an army, column, troop, band; line of troops
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.82–83:

     [...] ac ventī, velut agmine factō,
     quā data porta ruunt et terrās turbine perflant.

     [...] And the winds, as if become a [charging] column, whereby given passage rush [forth] and blow ’cross the world in a whirlwind.
     (King Aeolus releases the winds like a military force to destroy the Trojan fleet. See: Aeolus (son of Hippotes).)

3. (of water) stream, course, current, motion
4. (of an army) procession, march, progress, movement
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.212–213:

     “[...] Illī agmine certō / Lāocoönta petunt [...].”

     “[The sea serpents] with a steady march make straight for Laocoön [...].” – Aeneas

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	agmen	agmina
genitive	agminis	agminum
dative	agminī	agminibus
accusative	agmen	agmina
ablative	agmine	agminibus
vocative	agmen	agmina

Derived terms

• agminālis
• agminātim

References

• “agmen”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “agmen”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• agmen in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• agmen in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the centre of the marching column: agmen medium (Liv. 10. 41)
    
  • the vanguard: agmen primum
    
  • the rearguard: agmen novissimum (extremum)
    
  • to bring up the rear: agmen claudere, cogere
    
  • to set the army in motion: agmen agere
    
  • to lead the army with forced marches: citatum agmen rapere
    
  • to lead the army with forced marches: raptim agmen ducere
    
  • to march down on to..: agmen, exercitum demittere in...
    
  • to march with closed ranks, in order of battle: agmine quadrato incedere, ire
    
  • in two, three columns: agmine duplici, triplici
    
• “agmen”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “agmen”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin