pugio

English

Reconstructed Roman pugio.

Etymology

From Latin pūgiō.

Noun

pugio (plural pugios)

1. (historical) A dagger or poignard, especially the kind used by the Ancient Romans.
   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 34:

     The Pugio or Dagger was used by the Romans, a species of that weapon called the Hand Seax was worn by the Saxons, with which they massacred the English on Salisbury Plain in 476.

Italian

Alternative forms

• pugione (rare, archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pūgiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpu.d͡ʒo/
• Rhymes: -udʒo
• Hyphenation: pù‧gio

Noun

pugio m (plural pugi)

1. pugio

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ-, same source as Ancient Greek πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpuː.ɡi.oː/, [ˈpuːɡioː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpu.d͡ʒi.o/, [ˈpuːd͡ʒio]

Noun

pūgiō m (genitive pūgiōnis); third declension

1. a dagger
   • c. 100 CE – 110 CE, Tacitus, Histories 4.29:

     multōs in moenia ēgressōs pūgiōnibus fodere.

     Many, who had struggled on to the walls, with their daggers they stabbed.

   • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martial, Epigrammata 14.33:

     Pūgio, quem curvā signat brevis orbita vēnā,
     strīdentem gelidīs hunc Salo tīnxit aquīs.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pūgiō	pūgiōnēs
Genitive	pūgiōnis	pūgiōnum
Dative	pūgiōnī	pūgiōnibus
Accusative	pūgiōnem	pūgiōnēs
Ablative	pūgiōne	pūgiōnibus
Vocative	pūgiō	pūgiōnēs

Derived terms

• pūgiunculus

Descendants

• → English: pugio (learned)
• → Italian: pugio, pugione (learned)
• → Hebrew: פגיון (pigyón) (learned)

References

• “pugio”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pugio”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pugio 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)
• pugio in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “pugio”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “pugio”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin