scarabaeus

See also: Scarabaeus

English

Alternative forms

• scarabeus
• scarabæus

Etymology

From Latin scarabaeus.

Noun

scarabaeus (plural scarabaei or scarabaeuses)

1. Obsolete form of scarab.
   • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure‎^[1]:

     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.

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

• Aragonese: escarabaxo
• Asturian: escarabayu
• Catalan: escarabeu, escarabat
• Esperanto: skarabo
• Galician: escaravello
• Italian: scarabeo, scarafaggio
• Middle French: scarabée
  • French: scarabée
  • → English: scarab
    • → Irish: scarab
    • → Welsh: sgarab

• Polishː skarabeusz
• Portuguese: escaravelho
• Russian: скарабей (skarabej)
• Sicilian: scravagghiu
• Spanish: escarabajo
• Old French: escharbot
  • Middle French: escarbot
    • French: escarbot
• Translingual: Scarabaeus

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.