caudex

See also: Caudex

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin caudex (“tree trunk”, “tree stem”); compare codex.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kôʹdĕks, IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːdɛks/,

Noun

caudex (plural caudices or caudexes)

1. (botany) An enlargement of the stem, branch or root of a woody plant, usually serving to store water.

Related terms

• caudicle
• codex

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Latin

Alternative forms

• cōdex

Etymology

Uncertain, but some have connected it to Proto-Indo-European *h₃osk- (“ash tree”), the same source as English ash, Old Norse askr, Welsh onnen, Latin ornus (“wild mountain ash”), Lithuanian úosis, Russian я́сень (jásenʹ), Albanian ah (“beech”), Ancient Greek ὀξύα (oxúa, “beech”), Old Armenian հացի (hacʻi). The connection stems from the assumption that Indo-Europeans used hollowed out ash trees as boats and skiffs.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkau̯.deks/, [ˈkäu̯d̪ɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkau̯.deks/, [ˈkäːu̯d̪eks]

Noun

caudex m (genitive caudicis); third declension

1. A tree trunk, stump.
2. A bollard; post.
3. A book, writing; notebook, account book.
   c 49 AD, Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae (On the Shortness of Life), Penguin, →ISBN, page 21:

   That was Claudius, who for this reason was called Caudex because a structure linking several wooden planks was called in antiquity a caudex. Hence too the Law Tables are called codices, and even today the boats which carry provisions up the Tiber are called by the old-fashioned name codicariae.

4. (derogatory) A blockhead, idiot.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	caudex	caudicēs
Genitive	caudicis	caudicum
Dative	caudicī	caudicibus
Accusative	caudicem	caudicēs
Ablative	caudice	caudicibus
Vocative	caudex	caudicēs

Synonyms

• (bollard, blockhead, idiot): gurdus

Derived terms

• caudica (“a raft”)
• caudicālis
• caudicārius
• caudiceus

Descendants

• Portuguese: cáudice
• Spanish: códice

References

• “caudex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “caudex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caudex in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• caudex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “caudex”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers