pes

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpeːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpɛs]^[1]

Forms

pēs m (genitive pedis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pōd-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds (“foot”).^[2][1] The long vowel of the nominative is best explained by Lachmann's law from *ped-s, and the e-grade of the other cases comes from the accusative *ped-m or the locative *ped-i.^[2] The Umbrian compounds such as Umbrian dupursus (“for bipeds”) show that the grade *pōd- survived into Proto-Italic.^[2]

Cognate with Umbrian peři (“with the foot”), Sanskrit पद् (pád), Ancient Greek πούς (poús), Hittite pāt- and Old English fōt, all meaning “foot”.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the Twelve Tables and in Livius Andronicus.^[2][5] In Plautus it is the human foot, as when a character asks for water for the feet.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the foot of people and animals, Latin used it from early on as a measure of length (about 296 mm),^[4][6] for the leg of a piece of furniture, and for the rope at the lower corner of a sail.^[4] Many idioms grew from it: pedibus “on foot” or “by land”, pedibus ire in sententiam “to vote by moving to one side” in the Senate, ad pedes of suppliants, and nec caput nec pes for something without head or tail.^[4] In prosody it was the metrical foot, and more widely rhythm or metre.^[4][6]

Medieval writers used it for the foot of a mountain, the lower end of a field and the foot of a document,^[7] and Köbler records it as the pawn in chess.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – It appears in the Twelve Tables.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the human foot and as a measure.^[4][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for the legs of a chest.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the metrical foot.^[4][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it for the stalk of a fruit.^[4][5]
• Middle Ages – It names the foot of a mountain or of a document.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A foot of a person or animal.^[4][6]
2. pedibus: on foot; by land.^[4]
3. A step, a minimal distance (in negative phrases).^[4]
4. A foot as a measure of length; a square foot.^[4][6]
5. Space or extent of ground.^[4]
6. (prosody) A metrical foot; metre, rhythm.^[4][6]
7. The leg of a piece of furniture.^[4]
8. (nautical) A sheet, the rope at a lower corner of a sail.^[4]
9. The stalk of a fruit; the base of anything.^[4]
10. (Medieval Latin) The foot of a mountain; the lower end of a field; the foot of a document.^[7]

Word family

• antepes
• bipēs
• circumpēs
• compēs
• expediō
• impediō
• interpedio
• peda
• pedālis
• pedāneus
• pedārius
• pedātus
• pedester
• pedes

Related words

• pedeplāna
• pedetemptim
• peditātus
• peditō
• oppidum
• pessum
• English foot

Usage notes

Manibus pedibusque “with hands and feet” meant “with all one's might”.^[4] Pokorny connects the comparative peior “worse” with the same root, through a sense “falling down”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke