caduceus

English

A caduceus

Etymology

Via (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin cādūceus, cādūceum, adaptation of Doric (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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

• 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, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     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 using this term, see Citations:caduceus.

Translations

symbol

• French: caducée (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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 Latin) IPA^(key): /kaːˈduː.ke.us/, [käːˈd̪uːkeʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kaˈdu.t͡ʃe.us/, [käˈd̪uːt͡ʃeus]

Noun

cādūceus m (genitive cādūceī); second declension

1. Alternative form of cādūceum

Declension

Second-declension noun.

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