scarabaeus

See also: Scarabaeus

English

Alternative forms

• scarabeus
• scarabæus

Etymology

From Latin scarabaeus. Doublet of scarab.

Noun

scarabaeus (plural scarabaei or scarabaeuses)

1. Obsolete form of scarab.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     What did she mean about the scarabæus too? It was Leo's scarabæus, and had come out of the old coffer that Vincey had left in my rooms nearly one-and-twenty years before.

Latin

Alternative forms

• scarabēus

Etymology

Unknown, perhaps a foreign word, or with movable s- connected to the large family of words for shrimps, crayfish, scorpions and crabs beginning with /kaɾ/ mentioned at Persian خرچنگ (xarčang, “crab”) to which Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos, “beetle; crayfish”) is to be set in this context.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ska.raˈbae̯.us/, [s̠käräˈbäe̯ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ska.raˈbe.us/, [skäräˈbɛːus]

Noun

scarabaeus m (genitive scarabaeī); second declension

1. A scarab, black dung beetle, revered in Ancient Egypt.
2. A beetle

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	scarabaeus	scarabaeī
Genitive	scarabaeī	scarabaeōrum
Dative	scarabaeō	scarabaeīs
Accusative	scarabaeum	scarabaeōs
Ablative	scarabaeō	scarabaeīs
Vocative	scarabaee	scarabaeī

Descendants

Descendants

• Aragonese: escarabaxo
• Asturian: escarabayu
• → Bulgarian: скарабе́й (skarabéj)
• → Catalan: escarabeu (learned)
• → Esperanto: skarabo
• Old French: escharbot
  • Middle French: escarbot
    • French: escarbot
• → Middle French: scarabée (learned)
  • French: scarabée
  • → English: scarab
    • → Irish: scarab
    • → Welsh: sgarab
• Galician: escaravello
• → German: Skarabäus
• → Italian: scarabeo (learned)
• → Polish: skarabeusz
• Portuguese: escaravelho
• → Russian: скарабей (skarabej)
• Spanish: escarabajo
• Translingual: Scarabaeus
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *scarafaius
  • Catalan: escarabat
  • Italian: scarafaggio
  • Romansch: scarafag
  • Sicilian: scravagghiu

References

• “scarabaeus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• scarabaeus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.