caudex

See also: Caudex

English

Etymology

From Latin caudex (“tree trunk”, “tree stem”); compare codex.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôʹdĕks, IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːdɛks/,

Noun

caudex (plural caudices or caudexes)

1. (botany) An enlargement of the stem, branch or root of a woody plant, usually serving to store water.

Related terms

• caudicle
• codex

Latin

Alternative forms

• cōdex

Etymology

Uncertain. Most likely to be connected to cūdō (“I beat, strike”), both deriving from the same dental extension of Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂-, *keh₂w- (“to beat, hew, chop”), and so originally meant “that which has been cleaved off”. See also cauda (“tail”). Another possibility is a relation to caulis (“stalk”), if this is an l-stem derivative of the same ultimate root, perhaps *ḱawh₁- (“to swell; hollow”) (whence cavus) if both words originally meant “hollow stem”.

An older idea connected it to Latin caupulus (“a kind of small boat”), based on the observation that similar words meaning “boat” and “tree” are often related in Indo-European languages, as many Indo-European peoples used hollowed out trees as boats and skiffs.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkau̯.deks/, [ˈkäu̯d̪ɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkau̯.deks/, [ˈkäːu̯d̪eks]

Noun

caudex m (genitive caudicis); third declension

1. A tree trunk, stump.
2. A bollard; post.
3. A book, writing; notebook, account book.
4. (derogatory) A blockhead, idiot.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	caudex	caudicēs
Genitive	caudicis	caudicum
Dative	caudicī	caudicibus
Accusative	caudicem	caudicēs
Ablative	caudice	caudicibus
Vocative	caudex	caudicēs

Synonyms

• (bollard, blockhead, idiot): gurdus

Derived terms

• caudica (“a raft”)
• caudicālis
• caudicārius
• caudiceus

Descendants

See also cōdex.

• → Catalan: càudex
• → Portuguese: cáudice

References

• “caudex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “caudex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caudex in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• caudex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “caudex”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers