Etymologically
Log in

specus

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Latin word specus

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
234–149 BC, Cato

Forms

specus m or f or n (genitive specūs); fourth declension[1] It is feminine in Ennius, Pacuvius, Seneca, Frontinus and Gellius, and neuter in Virgil.[2]

Etymology

It is usually derived from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”), the root of speciō (“to look at”), and the OLD and Köbler give that link, the OLD with a “perhaps”.[2][3][1] De Vaan notes that the meaning does not require it.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cato as its first author;[3] Ennius has “a hollow cave opened wide within, beneath the mountain”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a cave or grotto, an abyss or chasm, as Virgil's hīc specus horrendum, the breathing-holes of Dis, and any hollow or cavity.[2][5] It is also any excavation in the ground, a pit or tunnel, especially in mining, as the underground pits for storing grain in the Bellum Africum, and a covered water channel or conduit, as in Varro and in Frontinus on the aqueducts.[2][5]

Church Latin glosses it “cave, hollow, den, cavity, pit, chasm, ditch, canal”.[6]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato.[3]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of a cave beneath a mountain.[2][3]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a conduit.[2][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a chasm.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cave, grotto; an abyss, chasm; a hollow, cavity.[2][5][1][6]
  2. A pit, tunnel;[2][1] (mining) a shaft;[2][1] a covered water channel, conduit.[2][1]

Usage notes

Döderlein treats specus and caverna as cavities below or level with the ground, and spēlunca and spēlaeum as cavities with an opening leading into a mountain.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
Cite this entry

“Specus.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/specus. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·