viscus

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin viscus (any internal organ of the body), perhaps akin to viscid.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

viscus (plural viscera)

  1. (anatomy) One of the organs, as the brain, heart, or stomach, in the great cavities of the body of an animal; especially used in the plural, and applied to the organs contained in the abdomen.
  2. (anatomy, specifically) The intestines.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Latin[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Of unclear origin;[1] possibly Proto-Indo-European *weys- (to turn, rotate).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈu̯iːs.kus/, [ˈu̯iːs̠kʊs̠]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈvis.kus/, [ˈviskus]
  • The long ī in the first syllable (given by Gaffiot (1934) and De Vaan (2008)) is supported per Ernout and Meillet by the use of i longa in inscriptions.[2]

Noun[edit]

vīscus n (genitive vīsceris); third declension (chiefly plural)

  1. Any internal organ of the body.
  2. (anatomy) entrails, viscera, bowels, internal organs
    Synonyms: intestīnum, interāneum, exta, prōsicium, prōsecta, hīllae
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.180–182:
      terra fabās tantum dūraque farra dabat.
      quae duo mixta simul sextīs quīcumque Kalendīs
      ēderit, huic laedī vīscera posse negant.
      The land yielded only beans and hard far. Whoever, on the Kalends of the sixth [months], eats these two [foods] mixed together, they say no harm will [come] to this [person’s] bowels.
      (The first day of June was the Kalendae fabariae or Bean-Kalends.)

Declension[edit]

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

Case Singular Plural
Nominative vīscus vīscera
Genitive vīsceris vīscerum
Dative vīscerī vīsceribus
Accusative vīscus vīscera
Ablative vīscere vīsceribus
Vocative vīscus vīscera

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • English: viscera
  • French: viscères
  • Portuguese: víscera
  • Spanish: víscera

References[edit]

  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
  2. ^ Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “uīscus, -eris”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots[2] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 741

Further reading[edit]

  • viscus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • viscus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • viscus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN