fascis

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- (“bundle, band”), see also Proto-Celtic *baskis (“bundle, load”), Ancient Greek φάκελος (phákelos, “bundle”), Albanian bashkë (“together”), Old English bæst (“inner bark of the linden tree”), Welsh baich (“load, burden”), Middle Irish basc (“neckband”).

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfas.kis/, [ˈfäs̠kɪs̠]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfaʃ.ʃis/, [ˈfäʃːis]

Noun

fascis m (genitive fascis); third declension

A faggot, fascine; bundle, packet, package, parcel.
A burden, load.
(usually in the plural) A bundle carried by lictors before the highest magistrates, consisting of rods and an axe, with which criminals were scourged and beheaded.
A high office, like the consulship.

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fascis	fascēs
Genitive	fascis	fascium
Dative	fascī	fascibus
Accusative	fascem	fascēs fascīs
Ablative	fasce	fascibus
Vocative	fascis	fascēs

Synonyms

(bundle): sarcina
(fascine): crātis
(burden, load): sarcina

Derived terms

fasciātim
fasciculus
fasciger
fascīna

Related terms

fascia

Descendants

Aragonese: faxo
Asturian: feixe, feix, fexe
Catalan: feix
English: (from various derivative terms) fascism, faggot, fagot
French: faisser, faix
Galician: feixe
Italian: fascio
Old Portuguese: feixe
- Portuguese: feixe
Romanian: fascie
Spanish: feje, haz, fajo

References

“fascis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“fascis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
fascis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to walk before with the fasces; to lower the fasces: fasces praeferre, summittere