cuneus

English

The cuneus

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cuneus. Doublet of coign and coin.

Noun

cuneus (plural cunei)

1. (neuroanatomy) A portion of the occipital lobe of the human brain, involved in visual processing.
2. (entomology) A wedge-shaped section of the forewing of certain heteropteran bugs.
3. (architecture) One of a set of wedge-shaped divisions separated by stairways, found in the Ancient Roman theatre and in mediaeval architecture.

Translations

portion of the occipital lobe

• Spanish: cuña (es) f

entomology: section of forewing

• Finnish: kuneus

Latin

Etymology

Uncertain root, apparently with the suffix -eus. Various problematic comparisons to either Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) or *ḱúH- (“spike; sting”) (compare Latin culex (“mosquito”), Avestan 𐬯𐬏𐬐𐬁 (sūkā, “needle”), Sanskrit शूक (śūka, “spike, bristle; sting (of an insect)”), शूल (śūla, “spear; stake”) etc.) have been unfruitful; a long vowel (*cūneus) would be expected in the latter case, and the morphology of the -n-eus suffix remains opaque. One possibility is that cuneus is a borrowing from Ancient Greek γώνιος (gṓnios, “corner, angle”) via an Etruscan intermediate which could explain the devoicing.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ne.us/, [ˈkʊneʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ne.us/, [ˈkuːneus]

Noun

cuneus m (genitive cuneī); second declension

1. wedge, wedge shape
2. (military) troops arrayed in a wedge formation
3. (military, figuratively) an army
4. (theater) a block of seats

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cuneus	cuneī
Genitive	cuneī	cuneōrum
Dative	cuneō	cuneīs
Accusative	cuneum	cuneōs
Ablative	cuneō	cuneīs
Vocative	cunee	cuneī

Derived terms

• cuneifōrmis
• cuneō
• cuneolus
• cuneātim

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: cunj, cunjiu
  • Romanian: cui
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: conio
  • Neapolitan: cogno
  • Sicilian: cugnu
• Padanian:
  • Emilian: cògn
  • Ladin: cogn
  • Friulian: cugn
  • Ligurian: cun-gno, cun-ni, cuin
  • Lombard: cugn, cugne, cuni ⇒ cugneul, chigneul, qignœl

    Ossolano: ciugn

  • Piedmontese: cugn, cun-i, cuin-i
  • Venetian: cogn
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: couen, cugno, cugne
  • Old French: coin, coigne
    • French: coin
    • → Irish: cúinne
    • → Middle English: coyn, coign, coigne, coin, coygne, coyne, cune, koyne, kuyne, quyne
      • English: coin, quoin, coign
        • → Japanese: コイン (koin)
      • Scots: cuinyie, cunzie
    • → Scottish Gaelic: cùinn
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: cuny
  • Occitan: cunh, conh, cuenh
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Galician: cuño, cruño
  • Portuguese: cunho
  • Spanish: cuño
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *cunea
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Old Galician-Portuguese: cunna, cuna
      • Galician: cuña
      • Portuguese: cunha
    • Spanish: cuña
• Borrowings:
  • → Albanian: kunj
  • → English: cuneus
  • → Italian: cuneo
  • → Portuguese: cúneo
  • → Proto-Brythonic: *kün
    • Middle Welsh: kyn
      • Welsh: cŷn

See also

• cunīculus
• cunnus
• cōnus

References

• “cuneus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cuneus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cuneus 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)
• cuneus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to draw up troops in a wedge-formation: cuneum facere (Liv. 22. 47)
    
• “cuneus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cuneus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “cuneus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin