cervix

See also: cérvix

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cervīx (“neck”), see below.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜː.vɪks/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝ.vɪks/

Noun

cervix (plural cervixes or cervices)

1. (anatomy) The neck.
   • 1979, Clive Sinclair, Hearts of Gold, Penguin, published 1983, page 10:

     I put my hands on Madeleine's hot cheeks, making a prize cup of my hands and her cervix, and tilted her head to one side.

2. (anatomy) The necklike portion of an organ or part of the body.
3. (now specifically) The cervix uteri, or lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the vagina.
   • 2023 January 23, Anna Bawden, The Guardian:

     Screening involves taking a small sample of cells from the cervix and looking for high-risk HPV that could develop into cancer if left untreated.

Derived terms

• cervical
• cervicalgia
• cervicectomy
• cervicitis
• cervix uteri
• ectocervix
• endocervix
• exocervix
• neocervix
• paracervix
• retrocervix

Translations

neck — see neck

neck-like part — see neck

lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the vagina

• Arabic: عُنُق اَلرَّحِم (ar) m (ʕunuq ar-raḥim)

  Egyptian Arabic: عنق الرحم m (ʕunuq er-raḥem)

• Armenian: արգանդի վզիկ (argandi vzik)
• Bulgarian: шийка на матката f (šijka na matkata)
• Burmese: သားအိမ်ခေါင်း (sa:imhkaung:)
• Catalan: cèrvix (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 子宮頸 / 子宫颈 (zh) (zǐgōngjǐng)

• Czech: děložní čípek (cs) m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: baarmoederhals (nl) f, cervix (nl) m
• Faroese: lívmóðurhálsur m
• Finnish: kohdunkaula (fi)
• French: col de l'utérus (fr) m
• German: Cervix uteri f, Cervix f, Zervix f, Gebärmutterhals (de) m
• Greek: τράχηλος (el) m (tráchilos)
• Hindi: ग्रीवा (hi) f (grīvā), गर्भाशयग्रीवा (garbhāśyagrīvā)
• Hungarian: méhnyak (hu)
• Ido: cervixo
• Indonesian: serviks
• Irish: ceirbheacs m
• Italian: cervice (it) f, collo dell'utero m
• Japanese: 子宮頸部 (ja) (しきゅうけいぶ, shikyū keibu)
• Khmer: កស្បូន (km) (kɑsboun), មាត់ស្បូន (mŏətsboun)
• Korean: 자궁경 (jagunggyeong)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: stuyê malzarokê

• Latvian: dzemdes kakls m
• Lithuanian: gimdos kaklelis m
• Maori: waha kōpū
• Marathi: योनिमार्ग m (yonimārga), ग्रीवा (mr) f (grīvā)
• Mongolian: умайн хүзүү (umajn xüzüü)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: livmorhals m

  Nynorsk: livmorhals m

• Polish: szyjka macicy (pl) f
• Portuguese: cérvice f, cérvix (pt) f, colo do útero m
• Russian: ше́йка ма́тки (ru) f (šéjka mátki)
• Slovene: maternični vrat m
• Spanish: cérvix m
• Swedish: livmoderhals (sv) c
• Tagalog: liig-liigan
• Turkish: serviks (tr)
• Welsh: mwnwgl y groth m, serfics m
• Zazaki: serviks, guwan (diq) f

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cervīx, see below.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛr.vɪks/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cer‧vix

Noun

cervix m (plural cervixen or cervices, diminutive cervixje n)

1. neck
2. the cervix between the uterus and the vagina

Synonyms

• (neck): nek, hals
• (uterus portion): baarmoederhals

Derived terms

• cervicaal

Latin

Etymology

According to one hypothesis, from Proto-Italic *kerweiks, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂(s)weyk-s, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂-(s-) (“the head”) (compare cerebrum) and *weyk- (“to curve, bend”) (compare vinciō), literally “where the head turns”. De Vaan rejects this etymology, calling it "semantically very doubtful". For the hypothesized sense development, compare Proto-Slavic *vortъ (“neck”) from Proto-Slavic *vortiti (“to turn, return”), from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, rotate”); Proto-Slavic *kъrkъ (“neck”) (<< Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”)). Also compare collum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkɛr.wiːks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃɛr.viks]

Noun

cervīx f (genitive cervīcis); third declension

1. (anatomy, zootomy) neck, nape, throat

   Synonym: collum

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.415–416:

     apta iugō cervīx nōn est feriendā secūrī:
     vīvat et in dūrā saepe labōret humō.

     The neck suitable for the yoke should not be struck by the axe:
     may it live long and labor often in the hard soil.
     (Agriculture dawns as Ceres teaches humans to yoke oxen to the plow and instead use other animals for sacrificial rites. See Ceres (mythology).)

   • 30 BCE – 16 BCE, Propertius, Elegies 3.17–18:

     levis odorato cervix manabit olivo
     et feries nudos veste fluente pedes

     Your smooth throat glistening with scented oil
     the flowing robe will brush your naked feet.

2. (figuratively)
   1. great burden, danger (from the figure taken from bearing the yoke)
   2. boldness, headstrong behavior
3. (transferred sense) (of an object) neck

Usage notes

Often used in the plural with singular meaning:

44 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Philippics:

Consules designati negabant se audere in senatum venire; patriae liberatores urbe carebant ea, cuius a cervicibus iugum servile deiecerant.

The consuls-elect said they did not dare attend the senate. The liberators of their native land were parted from the very city from whose neck they had cast off the yoke of slavery.

Inflection

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cervīx	cervīcēs
genitive	cervīcis	cervīcum
dative	cervīcī	cervīcibus
accusative	cervīcem	cervīcēs
ablative	cervīce	cervīcibus
vocative	cervīx	cervīcēs

Derived terms

• cervīcal
• cervīcālis
• cervīcātus
• cervīcōsus
• cervīcula

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Romanian: cerbice
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: serviu
  • Old French: cerviz ⇒ cervele, chervele (Picard)
    • Middle French: cevich
  • Old Occitan: cervitz ⇒ cervigal
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Portuguese: cerviz
  • Spanish: cerviz
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: cervice
  • Sicilian: cirbici
• Borrowings:
  • → Catalan: cèrvix
  • → Dutch: cervix
  • → English: cervix
  • → Malay: serviks
  • → Portuguese: cérvice, cérvix
  • → Romanian: cervix
  • → Spanish: cervix

Further reading

• “cervix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cervix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "cervix", 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)
• cervix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to break a person's neck: cervices (in Cic. only in plur.) frangere alicui or alicuius
    
  • a sword hangs over his neck: gladius cervicibus impendet
    
  • the foe is at our heels, is upon us: hostis in cervicibus alicuius est
    
  • to shake off the yoke of slavery: iugum servile a cervicibus deicere (Phil. 1. 2. 6)
    
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “cervīx”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 613

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French cérvix.

Noun

cervix n (uncountable)

1. cervix

Declension

Declension of cervix

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	cervix	cervixul
genitive-dative	cervix	cervixului
vocative	cervixule