lituus Latin · revision 5822
16 Oct 2026, 03:56 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|attested=Ennius}}
+
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈlɪ.tu.ʊs]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈliː.tu.us]^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Forms==
+ '''lituus''' ''m'' (genitive lituī); second declension^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ Its origin is unknown.^(de Vaan 2008) The TLL and the OLD think it may be a foreign word, perhaps Etruscan, the people from whom Rome took much of its augural lore.^(TLL)^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) If the first meaning was “curved”, Pokorny connected [[got|𐌻𐌹𐌸𐌿𐍃|tr=liþus|t=limb]] and [[non|liðr|t=joint]], from a *litu- “curved”.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ De Vaan dates it from Ennius, whose war trumpet poured out shrill sounds.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012) Köbler dates Ennius 204–169 BC.^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ It was the curved staff carried by augurs, free of knots, with which they marked out the regions of the sky.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) Cicero calls it the most famous emblem of the augur's office, and Livy says Romulus' augur used it.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) It was also a cavalry trumpet curved at one end, as Horace's ''lituus'' and the trumpeter ''liticen''.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)
+
+ Medieval glosses equate it with the Old English war horn.^(DMLBS) The augur's crook passed into the Christian bishop's crozier, and mathematics named the spiral curve ''lituus'' after its shape.^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius speaks of the war trumpet.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero calls it the emblem of the augurate.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy describes the augur's staff.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # An augur's curved [[m|en|staff]], crook.^(OLD 2012)
+ # A curved war [[m|en|trumpet]].^(OLD 2012)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[liticen]]
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[līmus 2]]
+ * [[oblīquus]]
+ * [[augur]]
+ * [[tuba]]
+ * [[cornū]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}