custos

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cū̆stōs.

Noun

custos (plural custodes)

1. (obsolete) A warden.
   • c. 1530, John Rastell, The Pastyme of People: The Cronycles of Dyuers Realmys, London,^[1]

     […] they were commytted to prison & put out of theyr offyces & the Constable of the Towre made custos of the citye.

   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 5, p. 148,^[2]

     Mr. Tharp, the Custos of the parish, and several other gentlement, accompanied the corps.

2. (Roman Catholicism) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a custody of the order.
3. (music, historical) In older forms of musical notation, an indication, at the end of a line of music, of the first note of the next line.

Derived terms

• custos rotulorum

Translations

superior of a custody

• Czech: kustos m
• French: custode (fr) m

• German: Kustos (de) m
• Italian: custode (it) m
• Latin: custos m
• Polish: kustosz (pl) m
• Portuguese: custódio m
• Spanish: custodio (es) m

Anagrams

• SCOTUS, Scouts, costus, scouts

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kustots, further etymology unclear. The proposal that it is derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewdʰ- (“to cover, wrap, encase”), from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, hide”) (whence Ancient Greek κεύθω (keúthō, “to conceal”), Old English hȳdan (“to hide, conceal, preserve”)) raises questions about the development of the medial /st/. Some etymologists consider /st/ to be the regular outcome in Latin of PIE *dʰ-t, based on aestās and aestus, a position which requires analyzing the /ss/ found in participle forms such as iussus and fossus as the result of analogy with forms built on stems ending in other dental consonants. Alternatively, the first element has been suggested to be cognate to Proto-Germanic *huzdą (“hidden treasure”) and the second element a reduced form of Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”), as a compound *kusdʰo-sd-, though it is not clear if *-sdʰ- would be reflected as /st/ in Latin. On the other hand, Michiel de Vaan argues that, as the usual reflex of dental clusters in Latin is /ss/, it is better to analyze the /st/ of aestās and aestus as an analogical reformation, not as the regular outcome of *dʰ-t. Therefore, de Vaan's viewpoint is that the /st/ in custos is unexplained and the etymology unknown. More at English hoard.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkuːs.toːs/, [ˈkuːs̠t̪oːs̠] or IPA^(key): /ˈkus.toːs/, [ˈkʊs̠t̪oːs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkus.tos/, [ˈkust̪os]
• Note: vowel length uncertain due to unclear etymological and graphic evidence

Noun

cūstos or cŭstos m (genitive cū̆stōdis); third declension

1. A guard, protector, watchman

   Synonym: appāritor

2. A guardian, tutor
3. A jailer
4. A keeper, custodian

   Synonyms: dēfēnsor, vindex, praeses, appāritor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cū̆stōs	cū̆stōdēs
Genitive	cū̆stōdis	cū̆stōdum
Dative	cū̆stōdī	cū̆stōdibus
Accusative	cū̆stōdem	cū̆stōdēs
Ablative	cū̆stōde	cū̆stōdibus
Vocative	cū̆stōs	cū̆stōdēs

Derived terms

• cū̆stōdēla
• cū̆stōdia
• cū̆stōdiō

Descendants

• Old French: costor (nominative form: costre, from a Gallo-Roman Latin refection custor, custorem of Classical Latin custos, custorem)
  • Middle French: coustre
    • French: coûtre
• → English: custos
• → Finnish: kustos
• → German: Kustos
• → Italian: custode

References

• “custos”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “custos”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• custos 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)
• custos in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

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Portuguese

Noun

custos

1. plural of custo