forfex

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin forfex.

Noun

forfex (plural forfices)

1. (obsolete) A pair of shears.
   • Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock

     The Peer now spreads the glitt'ring Forfex wide,

     T'inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide.

   • Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, Encyclopædia of antiquities

     the Classical forfices

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “forfex”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

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Latin

Etymology

According to De Vaan, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrdʰ- and so, cognate with Ancient Greek πέρθω (pérthō, “to sack, to ravage”) and πορθέω (porthéō, “to pillage”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfor.feks/, [ˈfɔrfɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfor.feks/, [ˈfɔrfeks]

Noun

forfex f (genitive forficis); third declension

1. pair of shears or scissors

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	forfex	forficēs
Genitive	forficis	forficum
Dative	forficī	forficibus
Accusative	forficem	forficēs
Ablative	forfice	forficibus
Vocative	forfex	forficēs

Descendants

• Aromanian: foarficã, foarticã
• Friulian: fuarpis, fuarfis
• Italian: forbice, forbici
• Portuguese: fórfice
• Romanian: foarfecă, foarfece

• Romansch: forsch, forbesch
• Sardinian: fóltighe, fórfiga, fórfighe
• Sicilian: fòrficia
• Venetian: forfe

References

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