picus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpiː.kʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpiː.kus]^[1]

Forms

pīcus m (genitive pīcī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *piko-, perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(s)piko- (“woodpecker”).^[2][1] Cognate with Umbrian peico (“woodpecker”), Old High German speht (“woodpecker”) and Old Norse spætr (“woodpecker”), and pīca “magpie” is a derivative.^[2][3] The long /ī/ may have been taken from pīca, since the other languages point to a short vowel, and the words may imitate the bird's shrill, laughing cry.^[2][3] The name of the Umbrian god Piquier Martier is compared with the Latin Pīcus Mārtius.^[2] Isidore of Seville said the bird was named after Picus, son of Saturn, who used it in augury.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[2][5] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant a woodpecker, one of the birds of augury; the pīcus Mārtius was probably the great black woodpecker, and Pliny the Elder says woodpeckers bear the name of Mars and are important in augury.^[7][5] Plautus also uses it of a griffin, according to Nonius.^[8] Picus was a king of Latium, son of Saturn, whom Circe turned into a woodpecker, as Virgil and Ovid tell.^[7][8] Festus says Picus used the bird in augury and was father of Faunus.^[7]

Its descendants are thought to include Italian picchio through a form with ⟨cc⟩.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus mentions a woodpecker.^[5][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil tells of King Picus.^[8][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the woodpecker of Mars.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woodpecker.^[7]
2. A griffin.^[8]

Word family

• pīca

Related words

• Faunus

Usage notes

Pīcus was also the name of a king of Latium, son of Saturn, changed into a woodpecker by Circe.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
5. ^ a b c d 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 e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.