conus Latin · revision 36472

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=96–55 BC, Lucretius|origins=grc κῶνος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈkoː.nʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔː.nus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cōnus''' ''m'' (genitive cōnī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|κῶνος|tr=kônos|t=pine cone; cone]].^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)^(Wiktionary) Etymonline gives the Greek word the senses cone, spinning top and pine cone, and calls it perhaps from a root [[ine-pro|*ko-|t=to sharpen]];^(Etymonline) Köbler compares the roots [[m|ine-pro|*k̑ēi-|t=to sharpen, whet]] and [[m|ine-pro|*ak̑-|t=sharp]].^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lucretius and Cicero use it first, for the geometrical figure:^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) a speaker in Cicero's ''On the Nature of the Gods'' finds the shape of a cylinder, square, cone or pyramid more beautiful than a sphere.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Beside the figure, it named conical things:^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) the top of a helmet that held the crest, in Virgil and Ovid,^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) a kind of sundial whose invention Vitruvius ascribes to Dionysodorus,^(OLD 2012) and the cone of the cypress and other conifers in Columella.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Isidore of Seville still explains it as part of the helmet.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ English took it over as [[m|en|cone]] in the 1560s, from French or directly from Latin.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the cone-like look of a long colonnade.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the geometrical cone.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius names a sundial called ''cōnus''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for the top of a helmet.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella uses it for cypress cones.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1560s – English borrows it as [[m|en|cone]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(geometry)'' A [[m|en|cone]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The [[m|en|apex]] of a helmet, which holds the [[m|en|crest]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A kind of [[m|en|sundial]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The cone of a coniferous tree.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cōnicus]]

+ * [[cōnifer]]

+ * [[cōniger]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|cone]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}