senex

senex

English

Etymology

From Latin senex.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛnɛks/

Noun

senex (plural senexes)

1. An older or old man.
   • 1997, Berger, Arthur Asa, The Art of Comedy Writing, published 2017, →ISBN:

     6. Old Men or Senexes. Frequently these characters have a beautiful young ward who, often, they wish to marry (or wish to marry off to someone the ward doesn’t like) and it is the task of the hero, the male lead, often helped by a shrewd servant or slave (or similar figure) to outwit the senex and marry the girl. Sometimes the senex figure is actually married to a young wife and that poses numerous complications: the old husband is jealous, the young wife unsatisfied in various ways with a different perspective on life.

   • 2013, Anderson, John P., Joyce’s Finnegans Wake: The Curse of Kabbalah, volume 7, Universal Publishers, →ISBN, page 53:

     Now for more about the four birds, explicitly identified with the four evangelists as the four old men or Senexes. Notice the repetition on four as the four Gospel books repeat much of the same history of Christ, perhaps as a result of an editorial effort to achieve uniformity.

   • 2016, Glynn, Stephen, The British School Film: From Tom Brown to Harry Potter, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 90:

     It concludes, though, not with an image of resigned heads or rebellious newcomers: instead, after the camera lifts for the final credits to the heavens—the only site for the senexes’ social and educational ideals?—it descends on the playing fields where the school’s ration-book-resourceful porter Rainbow (Edward Rigby) and his youthful assistant are seen collapsed under the frequently-removed rugby posts.

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Latin

mulier senex (old woman).

Etymology

PIE word
*sénos

From Proto-Italic *seneks, probably derived from earlier *senos (“old”, adjective), from Proto-Indo-European *sénos (“old”). Cognates include Lithuanian senis (“old man”), Ancient Greek ἕνος (hénos), Old Irish sen, Proto-Brythonic *hen, Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬥𐬀‎ (hana, “old”), Sanskrit सन (sána) and Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌴𐌹𐌲𐍃 (sineigs).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.neks/, [ˈs̠ɛnɛks̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.neks/, [ˈsɛːneks]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Adjective

senex (genitive senis, comparative senior, superlative senissimus); third-declension one-termination adjective

1. (usually of a person) old, aged, elderly
   • 405, Jerome and others, Vulgate, Samuelis I 2:22

     Heli autem erat senex valde et audivit omnia quae faciebant filii sui universo Israheli

     Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel;

Declension

Third-declension one-termination adjective.

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	senex			senēs	—
Genitive	senis			senum senium
Dative	senī			senibus
Accusative	senem	senex		senēs	—
Ablative	sene senī			senibus
Vocative	senex			senēs	—

Synonyms

• (old): grandaevus, senectus, vetulus, vetus, vetustus

Antonyms

• (old): iuvenis

Derived terms

• senāculum
• senātor
• senātōrius
• senātrīx
• senātus
• seneciō
• senectus
• seneō
• senēscō
• seniculus
• senīlis
• senīliter
• senium

 

Related terms

• senior

See also

• antīquus

Noun

senex m or f (genitive senis); third declension

1. old person, older person, old man, older man, (typically age 40 or older; older than a iuvenis); as feminine old woman, older woman
   • 63 B.C.E., Cicero, Catiline Orations (Latin text and English translations here); speech 2, section 5

     […] magno opere contemno, conlectum ex senibus desperatis, ex agresti luxuria, ex rusticis decoctoribus, ex eis qui vadimonia deserere quam illum exercitum maluerunt;

     […] I thoroughly despise that army composed of desperate old men, of clownish profligates, and uneducated spendthrifts; of those who have preferred to desert their bail rather than that army

   • 405, Jerome and others, Vulgate, Ioel 2:28

     et erit post haec effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem et prophetabunt filii vestri et filiae vestrae senes vestri somnia somniabunt et iuvenes vestri visiones videbunt

     And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	senex	senēs
Genitive	senis	senum
Dative	senī	senibus
Accusative	senem	senēs
Ablative	sene	senibus
Vocative	senex	senēs

Synonyms

• (old man): seneciō, veglō (Mediaeval)

Antonyms

• (old person): iuvenis

Derived terms

• senex amans
• senex iratus

Descendants

• Old French: sené
• Spanish: sené
• Sardinian:
  • Logudorese: sèneghe
  • Nuorese: sèneche
• Borrowings:
  • → English: senex
  • → Italian: sene
• Vulgar Latin: *senicus
  • Aromanian: sinrecu
  • Neapolitan: sanice (Old Abruzzese)
  • Occitan: senec, sanec
  • Old Italian: senici
  • Romanian: sânec, sinec

References

• “senex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “senex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• senex 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)
• senex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • still quote a young (old) man: admodum adulescens, senex
    
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911), “sĕnex”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 588