cippus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cippus (“stake, post”). Doublet of cep.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪ.pəs/

Noun

cippus (plural cippuses or cippi)

Funerary cippus from Sidon

1. A small, low pillar, square or round, commonly having an inscription, used by the ancients for various purposes, as for indicating the distances of places, for a landmark, for sepulchral inscriptions, etc.
   • 1855, Henry Duncan, Autumn:

     […] lodged on the top of an ancient sepulchral cippus

   • 1892, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, London: George Bell and Sons, page 5:

     [A] cippus, found at Valencia in Spain, has on one of its sides Fatus Q. Fabius ex voto, and on the other, three female figures, with the attributes of the Mœræ or Parcæ.

2. (historical) The stocks.

Translations

low pillar built by the ancients

• Portuguese: cipo (pt) m

stocks — see stocks

References

• “cippus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Alternative forms

• cīpus
• ceppus (Medieval Latin)

Etymology

Seemingly from a Proto-Italic *keipos (where Latin cīpus would be the older form), likely related to scīpiō, of unclear further origin. De Vaan derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱéypos (“pole, stick”), connecting it to Sanskrit शेप (śepa, “penis, tail”). However, the irregular alternation between the form with short ĭ and geminate pp versus that with long ī with singular p is difficult to explain; it could indicate contamination from another Italic dialect or borrowing from a substrate language, or it could be a normal Latin sound law seen also in littera from lītera. Not related to Latin scāpus, English shaft, Ancient Greek σκήπτω (skḗptō), despite some such suggestions.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkip.pus/, [ˈkɪpːʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃip.pus/, [ˈt͡ʃipːus]

Noun

cippus m (genitive cippī); second declension

1. stake, post
2. gravestone, tombstone
3. landmark, boundary marker
4. (military, in the plural) bulwark of sharpened stakes
5. menhir

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cippus	cippī
genitive	cippī	cippōrum
dative	cippō	cippīs
accusative	cippum	cippōs
ablative	cippō	cippīs
vocative	cippe	cippī

Descendants

Descendants

• Catalan: cep
• French: cippe, cep, cèpe, sep
  • → English: cepe, cep
• Galician: cepo, cepa
• Italian: cippo, ceppo
• Occitan: cep
• Portuguese: cipo, cepo
• Romanian: cep
• Sicilian: cippu
• Spanish: cipo, cepo
• → Proto-Brythonic: *kɨf
  • Middle Breton: queff
  • Middle Welsh: kyff
    • → Welsh: cyff
• → Middle Irish: cepp
  • Irish: ceap
• → Old High German: kipfa, chipf
  • German: Kipfl
    • → English: kipfel
• → German: Kippe

Further reading

• “cippus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cippus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cippus 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)
• cippus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cippus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cippus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin