acinaces

Forms

acīnacēs m (genitive acīnacis); third declension^[1] The accusative is acīnacem or acīnacēn.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀκινάκης (akīnákēs, “short sword of the Persians and Scythians”).^[4][5][6][1] Beekes thinks the Greek word is perhaps an Iranian loan, but notes that the form κινάκης (kinákēs) in Sophocles could point to a Pre-Greek origin instead.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Horace's Odes,^[6][8][3] for the short sword of the Persians and Medes.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it remained the name of an eastern weapon, the short, curved sabre of the Persians, Medes and Scythians.^[2][8] Curtius uses it repeatedly in his history of Alexander,^[8][9] and Tacitus has the Greek accusative acīnacēn.^[9]

Medieval, Renaissance and scientific Latin used it for a scimitar.^[1]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in the Odes.^[8][3][6]
• 1st century AD – Curtius uses it of the Persian sword.^[8][9][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses the accusative acīnacēn.^[9][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The short sword or sabre of the Persians, Medes and Scythians.^[4][8][2]
2. (Medieval and New Latin) A scimitar.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften