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caducus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word caducus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
234–149 BC, Cato
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*ḱh₂d-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kaˈduː.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kaˈduː.kus][1]

Forms

cadūcus (feminine cadūca, neuter cadūcum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from cadō (“to fall”).[2][3] De Vaan derives the verb from Proto-Italic *kad-e/o- and, with doubt, Proto-Indo-European *(ḱe-)ḱh₂d- (“to fall”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,[4][5] who directs that fallen olives be salted.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is unsteady or apt to fall, of people, of epileptics in a slave-sale contract, and of buildings likely to collapse.[2] It is falling or dropping, as Horace's thunderbolt, and fallen, as Cato's olives and Lucretius' fallen acorns; in augury cadūca auspicia were omens from something dropped in the sacred precinct.[2][3] It is also fallen in battle, drooping, as Cicero's vine, ripe and ready to fall, and of persons destined to die, especially young, as Virgil's doomed youth.[2] From this it is perishable or fleeting, as Cicero's “nothing mortal and perishable”, and of hopes vain or futile.[2][1] In law it is property that is not taken up by an heir and lapses, as Cicero's lapsed inheritances.[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “perishable, weak, frail, transitory”.[6] In medieval Latin it is property passing to someone by inheritance, and cadūcum is an inheritance or mortmain.[7] English caducous, in botany, is from it in 1797.[8]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of fallen olives.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a drooping vine, of perishable things and of lapsed inheritances.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a youth doomed to die.[2][5]
  • 1797 – English caducous, in botany.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Unsteady, tottering, likely to collapse; epileptic.[2][1]
  2. Falling; fallen; fallen in battle.[2][3][1]
  3. Drooping; ready or liable to fall.[2][1]
  4. Destined to die, doomed.[2][1]
  5. Perishable, fleeting, transitory; vain, futile.[2][1][6]
  6. (law) Of property, lapsed, vacant.[2][1]
  7. (Medieval Latin) Passing by inheritance; neuter as a noun, an inheritance, mortmain.[7]

Word family

  • cadūcum
  • cadūcārius
  • cadūciter

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
Cite this entry

“Caducus.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/caducus. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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