Cicero

See also: cicero, Ciceró, and Cícero

English

First-century C.E. bust of Cicero in the Capitoline Museums, Rome

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin Cicerō, a cognomen in reference to warts (cicer (“chickpea”). The Latinate form, based on the nominative, displaced Middle English Ciceroun, based on the oblique stem.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪsəɹəʊ/, (Latinistic) /ˈkɪkɛɹəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪsəɹoʊ/, (Latinistic) /ˈkɪkɛɹoʊ/

Proper noun

Cicero (usually uncountable, plural Ciceros or Cicerones)

1. The Roman statesman and orator Mārcus Tullius Cicerō (106–43 BC).

   Synonym: Tully

   • 1880, Henry James Nicoll, “Miscellaneous”, in Great Scholars. Buchanan, Bentley, Porson, Parr and Others., Edinburgh: Macniven & Wallace, page 204:

     He is described as having spoken for nearly an hour with great confidence in a highly declamatory tone, and with studied action, impressing all present who had ever heard of Cicero or Hortensius with the belief that he had worked himself up into the notion of being one or both of them for the occasion.

   • 1890 August 16, “The Tenth International Medical Congress”, in The Athenæum: Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama, number 3277, London: […] John C. Francis, […], page 230, column 3:

     […] [Guido] Baccelli once more in elegant and fluent Latin delivered a grand eulogy on Prof. [Rudolf] Virchow, who then likewise replied in fluent Latin. An embrace and a kiss of the two Cicerones concluded the tenth Congress, which as far as the number of visitors goes surpasses all the previous records; […]

2. A surname.
   • 1752, Cicero, translated by William Guthrie, Cicero’s Epistles to Atticus. With Notes Historical, Explanatory, and Critical. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Waller, […], pages 274 (book V, epistle XVIII) and 406 (book VII, epistle XVIII):

     Our two Cicerones [son Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor and nephew Quintus Tullius Cicero Minor] are with Dejotarus, but if there ſhould be Occaſion, they can be conveyed to Rhodes. […] ON the 2d of February my Wife and Daughter came to Formiæ, and inform’d me of al your very obliging Behaviour, and good Offices in their Behalf. I am willing they ſhould continue at Formiæ, together with the two young Cicerones, until we know whether we are to embrace a ſcandalous Peace or a deſtructive War.

   • 1867, E[dward] St. John Parry, Ciceronis Epistolarum Delectus: A Selection from Cicero’s Letters Illustrating the Contemporary History of Rome. With Notes and Introductions., London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 271:

     He [Marcus Pomponius Dionysius] was tutor to the two young Cicerones [son and nephew of Cicero]. […] The two young Cicerones accompanied their parents, and were placed under the charge of Deiotarus.

   • 2002, Colleen McCullough, “The Cracks Appear: From Intercalaris of 46 b.c. until September of 45 b.c.”, in The October Horse (Masters of Rome; 6), London: Century, →ISBN, section 3, pages 384–385:

     All in all, he [Titus Pomponius Atticus] reflected, the two Cicerones [Cicero and brother Quintus Tullius Cicero] had not had happy marriages; they had been obliged to marry for money, to heiresses. […] The pity of it was that both women loved their Cicerones; they just didn’t know how to show it, and were, besides, frugal women who deplored the Ciceronian tendency to spend money.

3. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A town in Cook County, Illinois.

      Former name: Hawthorne

   2. A town in Hamilton County, Indiana.
   3. An unincorporated community in Sumner County, Kansas.
   4. A town in Onondaga County, New York.
   5. An extinct town in Defiance County, Ohio.
   6. A town and unincorporated community in Outagamie County, Wisconsin.

Translations

Roman statesman and orator

• Arabic: شِيشِرُون m (šiširūn)
• Armenian: Կիկերոն (Kikeron)
• Azerbaijani:

  Abjad: سیسرون (sīsirōn)

  Roman: Siseron

• Belarusian: Цыцэро́н m (Cycerón)
• Bulgarian: Цицеро̀н m (Ciceròn)
• Catalan: Ciceró m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 西塞羅／西塞罗 (zh) (Xīsāiluó)

• Esperanto: Cicerono
• Finnish: Cicero
• French: Cicéron (fr) m
• Georgian: ციცერონი (ciceroni)
• German: Cicero (de) m
• Greek: Κικέρων (el) m (Kikéron)

  Ancient: Κικέρων m (Kikérōn)

• Hungarian: Cicero (hu)
• Italian: Cicerone (it) (Marco Tullio Cicerone)
• Japanese: キケロ (Kikero)
• Korean: 키케로 (Kikero)
• Latin: Cicerō (la) m
• Macedonian: Цицерон m (Ciceron), Кикерон m (Kikeron)
• Marathi: सिसेरो (sisero), किकेरो (kikero)
• Occitan: Ciceron m
• Ottoman Turkish: سیسەرون (sîserôn), چیچرون (çîçirôn), چیچەرو (çîçerô)
• Polish: Cyceron m
• Portuguese: Cícero (pt) m
• Romanian: Cicero
• Russian: Цицеро́н (ru) m (Cicerón)
• Sicilian: Ciciruni
• Spanish: Cicerón (es) m
• Ukrainian: Цицеро́н m (Cycerón)

Danish

Etymology

From Latin Cicerō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsisəʁo]

Proper noun

Cicero

1. Cicero

German

Etymology

From its use in publishing Pannartz and Sweynheim's 1468 edition of Cicero's Epistulae ad Familiares ("Letters to My Friends").

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Cicero

1. (uncountable, printing, dated) cicero, the 5th of the 7 traditional German sizes of type, between Korpus and Mittel, standardized as 12 point.

Latin

Etymology

From cicer (“chickpea”) +‎ -ō (suffix forming cognomina), probably in reference to an ancestor’s warts (as none can be seen in any of his portrayals, all done during a time when it was commonplace for artists to sculpt their clients as they were).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈki.ke.roː/, [ˈkɪkɛroː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃi.t͡ʃe.ro/, [ˈt͡ʃiːt͡ʃero]

Proper noun

Cicerō m sg (genitive Cicerōnis); third declension

1. The cognomen (final name) of Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman, writer, and orator

Declension

Third-declension noun, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Cicerō
Genitive	Cicerōnis
Dative	Cicerōnī
Accusative	Cicerōnem
Ablative	Cicerōne
Vocative	Cicerō

Derived terms

• Cicerōniānus

Descendants

• Catalan: Ciceró
• French: Cicéron
• Greek: Κικέρων (Kikéron)
• Italian: Cicerone
• Portuguese: Cícero
• Sicilian: Ciciruni
• Spanish: Cicerón

References

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