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lituus

Etymology and origin of the Latin word lituus

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Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
Ennius

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈlɪ.tu.ʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈliː.tu.us][1]

Forms

lituus m (genitive lituī); second declension[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.[2] The TLL and the OLD think it may be a foreign word, perhaps Etruscan, the people from whom Rome took much of its augural lore.[3][4][5] If the first meaning was “curved”, Pokorny connected Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌸𐌿𐍃 (liþus, “limb”) and Old Norse liðr (“joint”), from a *litu- “curved”.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius, whose war trumpet poured out shrill sounds.[2][4] Köbler dates Ennius 204–169 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

It was the curved staff carried by augurs, free of knots, with which they marked out the regions of the sky.[4][7] Cicero calls it the most famous emblem of the augur's office, and Livy says Romulus' augur used it.[4][7] It was also a cavalry trumpet curved at one end, as Horace's lituus and the trumpeter liticen.[4][7]

Medieval glosses equate it with the Old English war horn.[8] The augur's crook passed into the Christian bishop's crozier, and mathematics named the spiral curve lituus after its shape.[1]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius speaks of the war trumpet.[4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero calls it the emblem of the augurate.[4][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy describes the augur's staff.[7][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An augur's curved staff, crook.[4]
  2. A curved war trumpet.[4]

Word family

  • liticen

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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ 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

“Lituus.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/lituus. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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