English

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.

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Latin

Etymology

Some offer connection with Latin Scipiō and Ancient Greek σκήπτω ‎(skḗptō) from Proto-Indo-European *skap-, whence also Latin scāpus, scamnum, English shaft.

Alternative forms

• cīpus

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkip.pus/, [ˈkɪp.pʊs]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃip.pus/

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

Inflection

Second declension.

Descendants

References

• 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, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “cippus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: 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