# Cicero



## meozeren

Is it true that Cicero means chickpea?


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## brian

*cicer, -eris, n.* is "chick-pea."


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## Pinairun

and "cicero" is dative and ablative cases of latin declension.
So it's: to the chick-pea, with the chick-pea, without, by, for, etc.


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## Flaminius

> And "cicero" is dative and ablative cases of Latin declension.


Please apply capitalisation at the beginning of a sentence and for language names in English.

Now, Cicero is NOT dative nor ablative of _cicer_.  They are in fact _ciceri_, _cicere_.  The name of the Roman writer is supposedly derived from affixing _-on_ to the stem of _cicer_.  Thus we would get *_Ciceron_ for the nominative but the word final /n/ is lost.  Needless to say _-on_ is visible in other cases which do not end in /n/ (E.g., genitive _Ciceronis_).


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## Pinairun

Thak you very much for your good advices.


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## Stoicorum_simia

It's often stated that the original person named Cicero (before the name became hereditary) would have had a small growth which reminded onlookers of a chickpea. I don't know if that is true, but there are similar Roman names from the words for pulses: the cognomina Piso (pea) and Lentulus (lentil) and the gentilicium Fabius (bean).


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