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cicatrix

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word cicatrix

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɪˈkaː.triːks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃiˈkaː.triks][1]

Forms

cicātrīx f (genitive cicātrīcis); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3] Wiktionary suggests it may come from a substrate language.[1] Köbler hesitantly compares the root Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (“to gird, bind”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.[2] Terence's Eunuchus has a man who does not talk about his battles or his scars.[3]

Semantic evolution

In medicine it is the tissue that forms over a healing wound, as in Celsus, and Cicero uses it figuratively of not wanting to reopen the healed wound of the state.[3] Most often it is the mark of an old wound, a scar, and figuratively the lasting mark of suffering, as Seneca's honourable scar.[3][5] Virgil applies it to the mark left in a vine's bark by grazing flocks, and Manilius to the visible seam of the heavens.[3]

Church Latin glosses it “wound, scar, mark, bruise”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[2][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a soldier's scars.[3][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the marks on a vine.[3][4]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of scar tissue.[3][4]
  • 1640s – Borrowed into English as cicatrix;[7] cicatrice is earlier, from the mid-15th century.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Scar tissue on a healing wound.[3]
  2. A scar; figuratively, a lasting mark.[3][5][1][6]
  3. A mark of pruning or injury in a plant's bark.[3]

Word family

  • cicātrīcōsus
  • cicātrīcula
  • English cicatrix

References

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

“Cicatrix.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/cicatrix. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·