Etymologically

crepido

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 10:41. This address is a permanent link to this version.

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [krɛˈpiː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kreˈpiː.do][1]

Forms

crepīdō f (genitive crepīdinis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κρηπίς (krēpī́s).[2][3][1] The OLD calls the Latin ending unexplained.[2] It is related to crepida (“sandal, sole”).[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it from Cicero.[4] In the Verrines a pirate galley comes up to all the quays of the city: piraticus myoparo ad omnis crepidines urbis accessit.[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is a raised base supporting a building, statue or altar, a foundation or pedestal,[2][5] as for an obelisk in Pliny and an altar in the Vulgate;[7][5] Cicero uses it figuratively of a long period that holds up a sentence like a base.[5][7] It is also a raised footway beside a street;[2] a retaining wall, embankment or quay, as in Cicero, Vitruvius, Curtius and Tacitus;[2][7] a projecting ledge or rim in Varro and Vitruvius;[2] the edge of a height or of a path, a brink;[2] and a projecting rock or spur, as the high rock to which a ship is moored in Virgil.[2][6] Georges notes that idlers and beggars hung about on the quays.[7] A medical writer uses it for a fracture.[6] Medieval Latin used it for a bubo, a projecting part of a building, and, by confusion with crepitūdō, a cleft or ravine.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the quays of a city.[2][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro, of a projecting ledge.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a projecting rock.[2][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of the base of an obelisk.[7][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A raised platform supporting a building, statue or altar; a foundation, pedestal.[2][5][1]
  2. A raised footway beside a street, a sidewalk.[2][7][1]
  3. A retaining wall, embankment, quay.[2][7][6]
  4. A projecting ledge or rim.[2][6]
  5. An overhanging edge, brink.[2][5]
  6. A projecting rock or hill, a spur.[2][1]
  7. (medicine) A fracture.[6]
  8. (Medieval Latin) A bubo; a projecting part of a building; a cleft, ravine.[8]
  • crepida
  • crepidārius
  • crepidātus
  • crepidula

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill