See also: Picus, PICUs, pičus, and píčus

Latin

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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).[1][2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pīcus m (genitive pīcī); second declension

  1. woodpecker
  2. (mythology) griffin

Declension

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Second-declension noun.

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

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References

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  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “pīcus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 464
  2. ^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “pīcus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 8: Patavia–Pix, page 432

Further reading

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  • 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