Definify.com

Definition 2024


aspis

aspis

English

Vase showing hoplites bearing aspides.

Noun

aspis (plural aspides)

  1. A type of round shield borne by ancient Greek soldiers
    • 1963, William Kurtz Wimsatt, What to Say About a Poem and Other Essays, page 39:
      "shield both large and tough" has never said that aspides are small and weak []
  2. (archaic) An asp or generic venomous snake
    • 1588, Robert Greene, “The History of Dorastus and Fawnia”, in Pandosto: The Triumph of Time, published 1907:
      Flesh dipped in the sea Ægeum will never be sweet; the herb Trigion being once bit with an aspis never groweth, and conscience once stained with innocent blood is always tied to a guilty remorse.
  3. (palynology) A prominent ring of thickened exine around a pore on a pollen grain
    • 1974, Eugene Cecil Ogden, Manual for Sampling Airborne Pollen, ISBN 0028498208, page 128:
      As might be expected, characters of the aspides themselves are not of much value in pollen identification, but they are easily recognized and many three-pored, aspidate grains are broadly categorized as "betuloid" in studies of airborne pollen.

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Anagrams


French

Noun

aspis m

  1. plural of aspi

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀσπίς (aspís, round shield or asp).

Pronunciation

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈas.pis/, [ˈas.pɪs]

Noun

aspis f (genitive aspidis); third declension

  1. asp (venomous snake)
  2. viper

Inflection

Third declension.

Case Singular Plural
nominative aspis aspidēs
genitive aspidis aspidum
dative aspidī aspidibus
accusative aspidem aspidēs
ablative aspide aspidibus
vocative aspis aspidēs

References