pollex
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin pollex.
Noun
pollex (plural pollices)
- The thumb; the first, or preaxial, digit of the forelimb, corresponding to the hallux in the hind limb. In birds, the pollex is the joint which bears the alula or bastard wing.
- 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:
- We came to know the curious roadside species, Hitchhiking Man, Homo pollex of science, with all its many sub-species and forms.
- 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:
Derived terms
- pollical
- pollicate
See also
- hallux
References
- pollex in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
Latin
Etymology
Perhaps cognate with Proto-Slavic *palьcь, but contaminated with Latin polleō (hence pollex, not *pōlex).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈpol.leks/, [ˈpɔlːʲɛks̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈpol.leks/, [ˈpɔlːeks]
Noun
pollex m (genitive pollicis); third declension
- thumb
- great toe
- a unit of distance, equivalent to approximately 24.6 mm; one uncia (see also: Ancient Roman units of measurement)
- seal (insignia)
Declension
Third-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | pollex | pollicēs |
| Genitive | pollicis | pollicum |
| Dative | pollicī | pollicibus |
| Accusative | pollicem | pollicēs |
| Ablative | pollice | pollicibus |
| Vocative | pollex | pollicēs |
Derived terms
- pollicāris
Descendants
- Catalan: polze
- French: pouce ⇒ poucier
- → Sicilian: puseri
- Italian: pollice
- Occitan: poce
- Piedmontese: pòle
- Romansch: polesch, polisch, polsch
- Sardinian: póddiche, póddighe (“finger”)
- → Czech: pólech
- → English: pollex ⇒ pollical
- → Esperanto: polekso
- → Greek: πόλεξ (pólex)
- → Portuguese: pólex, pólice
- → Romanian: police
- → Spanish: pólice
References
- “pollex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “pollex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- pollex 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)
- “pollex”, in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
- Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911), “pŏllen”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 497