Etymologically
Log in

pyxis

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 14:18. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈpyk.sɪs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpik.sis][1]

Forms

pyxis f (genitive pyxidis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πυξίς (puxís, “box of boxwood”), from πύξος (púxos, “box tree”), a word Köbler and Etymonline call of unknown origin.[2][1][3][4] It is also spelled ⟨puxis⟩, as in Juvenal, and ⟨buxis⟩.[2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero, whom he dates 81–43 BC, and Gaffiot cites Cicero's Pro Caelio.[3][7]

Semantic evolution

It meant a small box or casket, first of boxwood, then of other woods and metal, for medicines, unguents and the like, as in Cicero, Seneca, Suetonius and Pliny the Elder.[2][5][7] In Pliny it also meant a metal cap on the end of a pestle.[2][7]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant the pyx or ciborium, the gold or silver vessel in which the Blessed Sacrament is kept or carried.[8] Medieval Latin used it for a small box and the lunule.[9] British Medieval Latin used it for a chest for money, also for the money used in testing coin.[10] It was borrowed into Italian as pisside, English pyx came about 1400, and Late Latin buxis gave Old English box, whence English box.[1][4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a small box.[7][3]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a medicine box.[2][3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a pestle cap.[2][3]
  • c. 1400 – English pyx is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small box, casket.[2]
  2. A cap on a pestle.[2]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The pyx, ciborium.[8]

Word family

  • pyxidātus
  • pyxidicula

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  10. ^ 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