picus

See also: Picus, PICUs, pičus, and píčus

Latin

Alternative forms

• pīccus, pīcca (reconstructed, Western Romance territory)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *pikos, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker; magpie”), whence also Latin pīca (“magpie”).

Romance evidence points to a form with -cc-, perhaps onomatopoeic and/or influenced by Vulgar Latin *pīccāre (“to strike, sting, peck”) and/or Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick”). Cf. Vulgar Latin *pīcca (“pick-axe”).

Cognate with Umbrian peico (acc.sg.), Sanskrit पिक (piká, “cuckoo”), German Specht (“woodpecker”), Swedish spett (“crowbar, skewer; kind of woodpecker”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.kus/, [ˈpiːkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.kus/, [ˈpiːkus]

Noun

pīcus m (genitive pīcī); second declension

1. woodpecker
2. griffin

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pīcus	pīcī
Genitive	pīcī	pīcōrum
Dative	pīcō	pīcīs
Accusative	pīcum	pīcōs
Ablative	pīcō	pīcīs
Vocative	pīce	pīcī

Related terms

• pīca (“magpie”)

Descendants

• Asturian: picatueru
• Catalan: picot
• English: Picus
• French: pic, pivert
• Friulian: pic
• Galician: piquelo, peto (perhaps)
• Italian: picchio
• Occitan: picot
• Sicilian: picu
• Spanish: pito, pico

References

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “pīcus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 8: Patavia–Pix, page 432

Further reading

• “picus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “picus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• picus 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)
• picus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “picus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “picus”, in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray