caduceus

English

A caduceus

Etymology

Via Latin cādūceus, cādūceum, adaptation of Doric Ancient Greek καρύκειον (karúkeion, “herald’s wand or staff”). This and Attic Greek κηρύκειον (kērúkeion) are derived from κῆρυξ (kêrux, “herald, public messenger”). Related to κηρύσσω (kērússō, “I announce”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈdu.si.əs/, /kəˈdjuː.si.əs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

caduceus (plural caducei)

1. The official wand carried by a herald in ancient Greece and Rome, specifically the one carried in mythology by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, usually represented with two snakes twined around it.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book II, canto XII:

     Caduceus the rod of Mercury, / With which he wonts the Stygian realmes inuade […]

2. A symbol (☤) representing a staff with two snakes wrapped around it, used to indicate merchants and messengers. It is also sometimes incorrectly used as a symbol of medicine.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:caduceus.

Translations

symbol

• French: caducée (fr) m

• Greek: κηρύκειο (el) n (kirýkeio)

See also

• aesculapian staff
• Rod of Asclepius

Further reading

• Wikipedia article on the Rod of Asclepius

Anagrams

• caucused

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kaːˈduː.ke.us/, [kaːˈduː.ke.ʊs]

Noun

cādūceus m (genitive cādūceī); second declension

1. Alternative form of cādūceum

Inflection

Second declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	cādūceus	cādūceī
genitive	cādūceī	cādūceōrum
dative	cādūceō	cādūceīs
accusative	cādūceum	cādūceōs
ablative	cādūceō	cādūceīs
vocative	cādūcee	cādūceī

References

• caduceus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caduceus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caduceus in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin