pius

See also: Pius

Kavalan

Noun

pius

1. (anatomy) nape

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *pwījos, from Proto-Indo-European *puHyós (“purifying”), from *pewH-.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpi.ʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpiː.us]

Adjective

pius (feminine pia, neuter pium, comparative magis pius, superlative maximē pius or summē pius or piissimus or pīssimus or pientissimus or piissumus or pientissumus, adverb piē); first/second-declension adjective

1. pious, devout
2. dutiful, loyal, conscientious
   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 5.1.33–36:

     At ego faciam, tu idem ut aliter praedices,
     Amphitruo, piam et pudicam esse tuam uxorem ut scias.
     de ea re signa atque argumenta paucis verbis eloquar.
     omnium primum: Alcumena geminos peperit filios.

     • Translation by Henry Thomas Riley

       But I'll make you, Amphitryon, to be holding other language; that you may understand that your wife is dutiful and chaste, upon that subject I will in a few words discover some tokens and some proofs. In the first place of all, Alcmena has given birth to two sons.

3. good, blessed
4. (Late Latin) holy

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	pius	pia	pium		piī	piae	pia
genitive	piī	piae	piī		piōrum	piārum	piōrum
dative	piō	piae	piō		piīs
accusative	pium	piam	pium		piōs	piās	pia
ablative	piō	piā	piō		piīs
vocative	pie	pia	pium		piī	piae	pia

Antonyms

• impius

Derived terms

• impius
• piē
• pietās
• piō
• pium

Descendants

• Italian: pio
• Old French: pius, piu
  • Middle French: pieux
    • French: pieux
      • → Romanian: pios
• Old Galician-Portuguese:
  • Galician: pío
  • Portuguese: pio
• Sicilian: pìu
• Spanish: pío
• → English: pious

References

• “pius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "pius", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “pius”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a regular, formal war: bellum iustum (pium)
    
  • (ambiguous) to show an affectionate regard for a person's memory: memoriam alicuius pie inviolateque servare
    
  • (ambiguous) to be an earnest worshipper of the gods: deos sancte, pie venerari
    
• pius in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “pius”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• Tantimonaco, Silvia (2021), “Piissimus and pientissimus: two nonexistent superlatives of pius?”, in Journal of Latin Linguistics‎^[3], volume 19, number 2, archived from the original on 11 July 2025, pages 281–307

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English fuse.

Noun

pius

1. fuse