carnifex
English
Etymology
From Latin carnifex (“butcher”).
Noun
carnifex (plural carnifexes or carnifices)
- (now rare, historical) An executioner.
- 1831, Walter Scott, Fortunes of Nigel:
- “[T]he carnifex, or executioner there, is brandishing his gulley ower near the King's face, seeing he is within reach of his weapon.”
- 1980, Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer, ch. 13:
- ‘Lesser places have no more than a carnifex, who takes life and performs such excruciations as the judicators there decree.’
- 2013, Geoffrey Hill, Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952–2012, Oxford University Press, OCLC 833046316, page 535:
- Vorónezh: Ovid thrusts abruptly wide / the ice-locked shutters, discommodes his lyre / to Caesar's harbingers. Interrogation, / whatever is most feared. Truth's fatal vogue, / sad carnifex, self-styled of blood and wax.
- 1831, Walter Scott, Fortunes of Nigel:
Latin
Alternative forms
- carnufex
Etymology
From carni(s) (“flesh”) + -fex (“suffix representing a maker or producer”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈkar.ni.feks/, [ˈkärnɪfɛks̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkar.ni.feks/, [ˈkärnifeks]
Noun
carnifex m (genitive carnificis); third declension
- butcher, knacker (one who slaughters and renders worn-out livestock)[1]
- Synonyms: laniātor, lanius, laniō, macellarius
- executioner, hangman
- tormenter, murderer
- scoundrel, villain
Declension
Third-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | carnifex | carnificēs |
Genitive | carnificis | carnificum |
Dative | carnificī | carnificibus |
Accusative | carnificem | carnificēs |
Ablative | carnifice | carnificibus |
Vocative | carnifex | carnificēs |
Derived terms
- carnificīna
- carnificō
Descendants
- → English: carnifex
- → Italian: carnefice
- → Portuguese: carnífice
- → Spanish: carnífice
References
- Latin-English Dictionary, Genealogy.ro
Further reading
- “carnifex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “carnifex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- carnifex 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)
- carnifex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- “carnifex”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin