Etymologically
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cuspis

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Forms

cuspis f (genitive cuspidis); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3][1] Szemerényi explained it as ⟨*kuri-spid-⟩, a compound of curis (“spear”) and an Italic noun ⟨*spis⟩ “lance”, related to Old High German spiz (“spit, point”) and Old English spitu (“spit”).[4][1] Köbler hesitantly compares the root Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“pointed”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[4] who uses it of reeds tied in bundles and let down into clay pipes, which are called cuspidēs.[2] Caesar has planks tipped with iron points.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a sharp point or tip, especially of a spear, and the spike at the butt of a standard, in Suetonius.[2] In the poets it is a spear or lance, cuspis triplex is Neptune's trident, and Ovid uses it of a scorpion's curved sting.[2][1] It can also be any pointed rod or stake.[2] Lewis and Short call it frequent, especially in the poets.[6]

Church Latin glosses it “sharp point, point of a nail or spear”.[7]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of pointed reed rods.[2][4][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of iron-tipped planks.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of Neptune's trident and a scorpion's sting.[2][5]
  • 1580s – Borrowed into English as cusp, first in astrology.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sharp point, tip, especially of a spear.[2][6][1][7]
  2. A spear, lance; a trident; a sting.[2][1]
  3. A pointed rod or stake; a spit.[2][1]

Word family

  • cuspidō
  • tricuspis
  • curis
  • English cusp
  • English cuspid

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com