acanthus

acanthus

See also: Acanthus and -acanthus

English

Acanthus ornamentation on a capital.

Etymology

From Latin acanthus, from Ancient Greek ἄκανθος (ákanthos), from ἀκή (akḗ, “thorn”) + ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”).[1][2]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈkæn.θəs/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈkæn.θəs/
• Rhymes: -ænθəs

Noun

acanthus (plural acanthuses or acanthi)

1. A member of the genus Acanthus of herbaceous prickly plants with toothed leaves, (family Acanthaceae, order Lamiales (formerly Scrophulariales)) found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and India. [from mid 16th century][2]
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698:

     The picture before which they paused represented one of those ruined fountains so common to Italy. Francesca gazed upon it as if it had been an old friend: many a time, beside such a one, with its curved and broken marble, had she wreathed the acanthus that hung around it, the green and trailing foliage so profuse in the South, into shapes even more fanciful than those which once suggested the Corinthian capital.

   Synonyms: bear's breech, bear's breeches, (rare) bear's-breech

2. (architecture) An ornament resembling the foliage or leaves of Acanthus spinosus, used in the capitals of the Corinthian and composite orders. [from mid 18th century][2]
   • 1994 March, R Ousterhout, “Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, an Annotated Bibliography and Historiography by W. Eugene Kleinbauer”, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, volume 53, number 1:

     It is difficult to imagine that Bernard of Clairvaux was gullible enough to accept dozens of historiated windows, grisaille fields of griffins, mosaic pavements, carved acanthus capitals, inhabited vine columns, and golden altarware on the strength of the justifications offered by a single window, one tympanum, and Suger's libelli

Translations

plant

Bulgarian: акантус (akantus), синя шапка (sinja šapka) Finnish: akantti (fi) Greek: άκανθα (el) f (ákantha) Ancient: ἄκανθος f (ákanthos) Interlingua: acantho Irish: acantas m Italian: acanto (it) Malay: akantus Manx: jialg f Persian: کنگر‎ (fa) (kangar) Polish: akant (pl) m inan Portuguese: acanto (pt) m Romagnol: acânt m Romanian: acantă f or acant Russian: ака́нт (ru) m (akánt), медве́жья ла́па f (medvéžʹja lápa) Serbo-Croatian: bodljikara f, primog (sh) m, tratorak (sh) m Spanish: acanto (es) m

ornament

Bulgarian: акант (akant) Catalan: acant m Finnish: akantti (fi) Irish: duille acantais m Italian: acanto (it) m Polish: akant (pl) m inan Romanian: acantă (ro) f Russian: ака́нт (ru) m (akánt) Spanish: acanto (es) m

See also

• acantha
• Acanthis

References

1. Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN)
2. Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “acanthus”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

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

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἄκανθος (ákanthos), from ἀκή (akḗ, “thorn”) + ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aˈkan.tʰus/, [äˈkän̪t̪ʰʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈkan.tus/, [äˈkän̪t̪us]

Noun

acanthus m (genitive acanthī); second declension

1. A plant known as bear's-foot (Helleborus foetidus).
2. A thorny evergreen tree.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	acanthus	acanthī
Genitive	acanthī	acanthōrum
Dative	acanthō	acanthīs
Accusative	acanthum	acanthōs
Ablative	acanthō	acanthīs
Vocative	acanthe	acanthī

Descendants

• → Catalan: acant
• → Finnish: akantus, akantti
• → English: acanthus
• → French: acanthe
  • → Romanian: acantă
• → Irish: acanta-, acantas
• → Italian: acanto
• → Polish: akant (learned)
• → Portuguese: acanto
• → Spanish: acanto
• → Swedish: akantus, akant

References

• “acanthus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “acanthus”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
• “acanthus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “acanthus”, in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• “acanthus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly