fax Latin · revision 4891
16 Oct 2026, 00:31 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=inherited|attested=Plautus}}
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+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈfaks]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈfaks]^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Forms==
+ '''fax''' ''f'' (genitive facis); third declension^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*fwak(w)-(ē-)]], of uncertain origin.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan considers a PIE *ǵʰwok-, with /o/ unrounded to /a/, which would make it cognate with [[lt|žvãkė|t=candle]]; a link with Greek φώψ “light”, a Hesychian word, is uncertain.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) He also derives [[facētus]] “clever” from the same stem, from “enlightened” to “clever”.^(de Vaan 2008) Wiktionary compares [[ett|face|t=torch (?)]].^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Plautus uses it.^(de Vaan 2008) Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ In Classical Latin it was a torch for light, as Horace's man who walks with torches before nightfall, and a torch in processions, above all at weddings, so that by metonymy it meant marriage.^(OLD 2012) In poetry it was the light of the sun and stars, and it was a meteor or comet.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Figuratively it was what kindles passion or ruin, an incitement.^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Döderlein calls it the general word for a torch, against [[taeda]] of pine and ''fūnāle'' of wax.^(Döderlein 1874)
+
+ In medieval Latin it kept the sense of a torch, of a heavenly light, and figurative uses.^(DMLBS) It was borrowed as [[it|face]].^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a torch.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 65–8 BC – Horace mentions torches carried before nightfall.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # A [[m|en|torch]], firebrand.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)
+ # A wedding torch; marriage.^(OLD 2012)
+ # ''(poetic)'' The light of a heavenly body.^(OLD 2012)
+ # A [[m|en|meteor]], [[m|en|comet]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+ # An incitement, cause of ruin.^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[facella]]
+ * [[facētus]]
+ * [[facula]]
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[tītiō]]
+ * [[torris]]
+ * [[taeda]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}