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cornipes

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word cornipes

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
81/79–52/50 BC, Catullus
Ultimate origin
Latin (cornū,pēs)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cornu
Latin unicornis
English unicorn
Latin cornipes
Latin bicornis

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔr.nɪ.peːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔr.ni.pes][1]

Forms

cornipēs (genitive cornipedis); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cornū (“horn”) + pēs (“foot”), literally “horn-footed”.[2][3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short record it first in Catullus, of a she-goat, capella.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a poetic word for hoofed animals:[3] Virgil has cornipedes equi, horn-footed horses,[2][6] Ovid gives the epithet to Faunus, and Silius to the foot of Pan.[3][6] Used as a masculine noun it means a horse, in Seneca's Phaedra and in Silius,[2][3] and Claudian, who uses the noun most often, also applies it to the centaur Chiron;[3] Avienus has it for a centaur too.[6]

Medieval writers in Britain use it for a steed or war-horse.[7]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a she-goat.[3][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of horses.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it as a noun, “horse”.[2][5]
  • mid 4th century AD – Avienus uses it of a centaur.[6][5]
  • c. 400 AD – Claudian uses the noun of horses and of the centaur Chiron.[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having horny feet, hoofed.[2][3][1]

Noun

  1. (poetic) A horse, steed.[2][3][6]
  2. (poetic) A centaur.[3][6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A war-horse.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
Cite this entry

“Cornipes.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/cornipes. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·