nux

See also: Nüx

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *knuks, from Proto-Indo-European *knew- (compare Old Irish cnú, Old English hnutu, Albanian nyç (“a gnarl”)), Persian لوز (lowz).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /nuks/, [nʊks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /nuks/, [nuks]

Noun

nux f (genitive nucis); third declension

1. a nut
2. a nut tree

   Inter primas germinant ulmus, salix, nuces.

   Among the first to sprout are the elm, the willow, and the nut tree.

3. a fruit with a hard shell or rind

   Nux amara.

   A bitter almond.

   Castaneae nuces.

   Chestnuts.

   Nux pinea.

   The fruit of the tithymalus.

4. (figuratively) a thing of no value

   Non ego tuam empsim vitam vitiosā nuce.

   • I should not have bought your life with a vicious worthless thing. (Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, act 2, scene 3, line 45)
5. (poetic) an almond tree

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nux	nucēs
Genitive	nucis	nucum
Dative	nucī	nucibus
Accusative	nucem	nucēs
Ablative	nuce	nucibus
Vocative	nux	nucēs

Synonyms

• (a thing of no value): res vel vilissima

Derived terms

• in nuce (“in a nutshell”)
• nucāmenta
• nucēs relinquō (“I give up childish sports”)
• nucētum
• nuceus
• nucicla
• nucifer
• nucifrangibulum
• nucinus
• nucipersicum
• nuciprūnum
• nucleus
• nucunculus
• nux cassa (“nutshell”)
• nux indica
• nux muscata
• nux vomica

 

Related terms

• nucleō
• nucleātus
• nucleolus

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: nuc m, nucã f
  • Romanian: nuc m, nucă f
• Dalmatian:
  • nauc
• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: noce
  • Italian: noce m or f
  • Neapolitan: noce
  • Sicilian: nuci
• Padanian:
  • Ligurian: nôxe
  • Romagnol: nôș m, nôșa f
  • Romansch: nusch m
  • Venetian: nóxa
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: noués
  • French: noix
  • Occitan: notz, nose, noga
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: nuche, nughe, nuge, nugi
• Vulgar Latin:
  • *nocem (see there for further descendants)
• Borrowings:
  • → Esperanto: nukso
  • → Ido: nuco

References

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “nŭx”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume
  , page 257

Further reading

• “nux”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nux”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• nux 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)
• nux in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “nux”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers