fastigium

English

Etymology

From Latin fastigium.

Noun

fastigium (plural fastigia)

1. An apex or summit; culmination.
2. (architecture) A pediment or gable end.
3. (pathology) The most intense phase of a disease, especially a fever.
   • 1871, C[arl Reinhold] A[ugust] Wunderlich, W. Bathurst Woodman, transl., “Fundamental Principles”, in On the Temperature in Diseases: A Manual of Medical Thermometry. [...] Translated from the Second German Edition (New Sydenham Society Publications; XLIX), London: The New Sydenham Society, →OCLC, § 32, page 14:

     [W]e find that the duration and succession of the febrile phenomena constitute five principal groups. […] 2. Fevers which are essentially continuous in their course (continued fevers), which exhibit but slight daily differences of temperature during their fastigium or acme, and defervesce rapidly (by crisis).

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *farstjagjom, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérstis, from *bʰers- (“tip”). Compare Middle Irish brostaim (“I goad, spur”), English bristle, Polish barszcz (“hogweed”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /fasˈtiː.ɡi.um/, [fäs̠ˈt̪iːɡiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /fasˈti.d͡ʒi.um/, [fäsˈt̪iːd͡ʒium]

Noun

fastīgium n (genitive fastīgiī or fastīgī); second declension

1. peak, summit, top
2. slope, declivity, descent
3. gable
4. sharp point

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fastīgium	fastīgia
Genitive	fastīgiī fastīgī1	fastīgiōrum
Dative	fastīgiō	fastīgiīs
Accusative	fastīgium	fastīgia
Ablative	fastīgiō	fastīgiīs
Vocative	fastīgium	fastīgia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• fastīgō

Descendants

• Portuguese: fastígio
• Spanish: fastigio, hastial

References

• “fastigium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fastigium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fastigium 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)
• fastigium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “fastigium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “fastigium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin