bivium

English

Etymology

Latin, a place with two ways. See bivious.

Noun

bivium

1. (zoology) One side of an echinoderm, including a pair of ambulacra, in distinction from the opposite side (trivium), which includes three ambulacra.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for bivium in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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Latin

Etymology

Substantive from bivius (“having two ways”), which is derived from via (“path, road”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈbi.wi.um/, [ˈbɪ.wi.ũ]

Noun

bivium n (genitive biviī); second declension

1. A place with or where two ways meet; fork in the road, crossroad.
2. A pair of alternative means or methods.

Inflection

Second declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	bivium	bivia
genitive	biviī	biviōrum
dative	biviō	biviīs
accusative	bivium	bivia
ablative	biviō	biviīs
vocative	bivium	bivia

Descendants

• Italian: bivio

References

• “bivium” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • Hercules at the cross-roads, between virtue and vice: Hercules in trivio, in bivio, in compitis
    
• bivium in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers