sudis

Forms

sudis f (genitive sudis); third declension^[1] The nominative singular is found only in Pliny the Elder.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Varro, who uses it of a fish.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a pointed stick or stake, as the four-split stakes Virgil plants in the ground, and as a weapon: Caesar has the Gauls driven off with slings and stakes.^[3][2] Juvenal uses it of the spikes standing up on the back of a strange fish.^[3] Varro's fish named after a stake is probably the pike.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of a fish.^[3][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of stakes used as weapons.^[3][2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of stakes planted in a field.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pointed stick, stake, pile; a stake used as a weapon.^[3][2][1]
2. A sharp projection, spike.^[3]
3. A fish, probably the pike.^[3]

Usage notes

Döderlein classes sudēs with trudēs and rudis as sticks for thrusting, as against fustis and ferula for striking and scīpiō and baculus for walking.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper