codex

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōdex (“tree trunk, wooden tablet, book, account book, code of laws”),^[2][3][4][5] a variant of caudex (“tree trunk”).^[2][3][6] The Oxford Dictionary of English explains the sense development in Latin: a block of wood, then a block split into leaves or tablets for writing, and so a book.^[7][8] In post-classical Latin the plural also meant a collection of the scriptures (4th century), and the singular a printed book (15th century).^[2] The same Latin word, through French, gave the earlier code,^[2][4][5][9] and its diminutive gave codicil.^[9] The OED compares Middle French codice (“book”) (1512) and French codex, a book (early 17th century) and a collection of pharmaceutical prescriptions (1651).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A systematic collection of laws or rules, a code: 1577, in J. Brooke's translation of Guy de Brès.^[2][8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date this sense to 1581.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, the first in English, did not last: the Shorter Oxford marks it obsolete by the mid 18th century, and it passed to code.^[8][10] The sense of a manuscript volume made of pages bound at the spine, as opposed to a scroll, is recorded from 1661,^[2][10] and became the main one, especially of ancient manuscripts of the Bible or the classics.^[2][10][11] Etymonline dates this sense to 1845.^[5] From 1819 a codex was also an official list of approved drugs and their formulas, a pharmacopoeia, after the French use;^[2][8][10] in later use it can be any official set of standards in a field.^[2]

Timeline

• 1577 – a collection of laws, a code (obsolete).^[2]
• 1661 – a manuscript volume bound at the spine.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1845.^[5]
• 1819 – an official list of approved drugs and their formulas.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ancient manuscript in book form, with leaves bound at one side rather than rolled as a scroll, especially one of the Scriptures or the classics.^[11][10][2]
2. An official list of drugs and their formulas; a pharmacopoeia.^[10][2][8]
3. (obsolete) A code of laws.^[11][10][2]

Related words

• caudex
• code
• codicology
• codify
• codification
• codicil

Usage notes

The plural is codices.^[11][10][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins