Caius

Latin

Etymology

See Gāius. The spelling with C is a holdover from an era when the letter C represented the phonetic value /ɡ/.

Pronunciation

• (original) (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaː.i.us/, [ˈɡäːiʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.i.us/, [ˈɡäːius]
• (later) (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaː.i̯us/, [ˈɡäːi̯ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.jus/, [ˈɡäːjus]
• (hypercorrect) (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkaː.i.us/, [ˈkäːiʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.i.us/, [ˈkäːius]
• (hypercorrect) (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkaː.i̯us/, [ˈkäːi̯ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.jus/, [ˈkäːjus]

Proper noun

Cāius m (genitive Cāiī or Cāī, feminine Cāia); second declension

1. (archaic or hypercorrect) Alternative form of Gāius

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	Cāius	Cāī
Genitive	Cāiī Cāī1	Cāiōrum
Dative	Cāiō	Cāīs
Accusative	Cāium	Cāiōs
Ablative	Cāiō	Cāīs
Vocative	Cāī	Cāī

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
The noun Cāius possesses several irregularly syncopated forms in the nominative, dative, ablative, and vocative plural.

References

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