cippus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cippus (“stake, post”). Doublet of cep.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈsɪ.pəs/

Noun

cippus (plural cippuses or cippi)

Funerary cippus from Sidon

A small, low pillar, square or round, commonly having an inscription, used by the ancients for various purposes, as for indicating the distances of places, for a landmark, for sepulchral inscriptions, etc.
- 1855, Henry Duncan, Autumn:
  […] lodged on the top of an ancient sepulchral cippus
(historical) The stocks.

Translations

low pillar built by the ancients

Portuguese: cipo (pt) m

stocks — see stocks

References

cippus in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Latin

Alternative forms

cīpus

Etymology

Unclear. Some offer connection with Latin Scipiō and Ancient Greek σκήπτω (skḗptō) from Proto-Indo-European *skāp- < *skeh₂p- (“rod, shaft, staff, club”), whence also Latin scāpus, scamnum, and English shaft.

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkip.pus/, [ˈkɪpːʊs̠]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃip.pus/, [ˈt͡ʃipːus]

Noun

cippus m (genitive cippī); second declension

stake, post
gravestone, tombstone
landmark, boundary marker
(military, in the plural) bulwark of sharpened stakes
menhir

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cippus	cippī
Genitive	cippī	cippōrum
Dative	cippō	cippīs
Accusative	cippum	cippōs
Ablative	cippō	cippīs
Vocative	cippe	cippī

Descendants

Catalan: cep
French: cippe, cep, cèpe, sep
- → English: cepe, cep
Galician: cepo, cepa
Italian: cippo, ceppo
Occitan: cep
Portuguese: cipo, cepo
Romanian: cep
Sicilian: cippu
Spanish: cipo, cepo
→ Proto-Brythonic: *kɨf
- Middle Breton: queff
- Middle Welsh: kyff
  - → Welsh: cyff
→ Middle Irish: cepp
- Irish: ceap
→ Old High German: kipfa, chipf
- German: Kipfl
  - → English: kipfel
→ German: Kippe

References

“cippus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“cippus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
cippus 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)
cippus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
“cippus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“cippus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin