English

Noun

numen ‎(plural numina)

1. a divinity, especially a local or presiding god
   • 1965, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49:

     Where were Secretaries James and Foster and Senator Joseph, those dear daft numina who’d mothered over Oedipa’s so temperate youth?

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     It was the solid and immovable tabernacle of the living numen whose son he had known, though but briefly and not intimately, in the flesh, and whose message he accepted with all his heart.

See also

• numinous
• numinal

Latin

Alternative forms

• noumen

Etymology

• Can be simply an action noun of *nuō, for *nuimen, from *nuō + -men, thus meaning "a nodding with the head", "a nod", "command", "will" (as nūtus), with the particular meaning of "the divine will", "the will or power of the gods", "divine sway".
• Others suggest the Ancient Greek word νοούμενον ‎(nooúmenon) ("an influence perceptible by mind but not by senses"), from νοέω ‎(noéō), was borrowed into Early Latin as the word noumen, whose spelling changed to numen in Classical Latin.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈnuː.men/, [ˈnuː.mẽ]

Noun

nūmen n ‎(genitive nūminis); third declension

1. a nod of the head
2. divine sway or will
3. divine power or right
4. divinity

Inflection

Third declension neuter.

Descendants

• Portuguese: nume, númen

References

• numen in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• numen in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “numen”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the sovereign power of the gods: numen (deorum) divinum
    

1. ↑ Erasmus, Desiderius ♦ Collected Works of Erasmus University of Toronto Press, 1985, p. 415
2. ↑ Riccioli, Giovanni Battista ♦ Prosodia Bononiensis Reformata Typis Seminarii Patavii, 1714, p. 47

Old English

Pronunciation

Verb

numen

1. past participle of niman

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin numen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnu.men/

Noun

numen m ‎(plural numina)

1. numen
2. muse (source of inspiration)

Synonyms

• (source of inspiration): inspiración, musa

References

“numen” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima segunda edición, Real Academia Española, 2001.