murcus

Latin

Etymology

Unknown. The Hesychius hapax Ancient Greek μύρκος (múrkos), μυρικᾶς (murikâs, “mute, dumb”), transmitted as being used in Syracuse, is deemed by Oikonomos, Ernout/Meillet and Beekes borrowed from Latin. Connection to murgisō (“shrewd shyster”), Old Armenian մրգուզ (mrguz, “vile, despicable”) seems promising, however the -cus part reoccurs in broccus (“having broken teeth”), mancus (“maimed, crippled”), caecus (“blind”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmur.kus/, [ˈmʊrkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmur.kus/, [ˈmurkus]

Noun

murcus m (genitive murcī); second declension (dis legomenon)

1. a coward, who, to escape military service, cuts off his thumb

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	murcus	murcī
Genitive	murcī	murcōrum
Dative	murcō	murcīs
Accusative	murcum	murcōs
Ablative	murcō	murcīs
Vocative	murce	murcī

Derived terms

• murcidus (“languid”) (uncertain, also rare)
• Murcus (personal name) (uncertain)

References

• “murcus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• murcus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “murcus”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎^[1] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 422b
• “murcus” in volume 8, column 1670, line 54–61 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present