English

Noun

caudex ‎(plural caudices or caudexes)^[1]

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

Related terms

• caudicle
• codex

References

1. 1 2 3 4 “‖caudex” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]

Latin

Alternative forms

• cōdex

Etymology

Uncertain, but some have connected it to Proto-Indo-European *h₃osk- ‎(“ash tree”), the same source as Welsh onnen, Latin ornus ‎(“wild mountain ash”), Lithuanian úosis, Russian я́сень ‎(jásenʹ), Albanian ah ‎(“beech”), Ancient Greek ὀξύα ‎(oxúa, “beech”), Old Armenian հացի ‎(hacʿi). The connection stems from the assumption that Indo-Europeans used hollowed out ash trees as boats and skiffs.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkau̯.deks/, [ˈkau̯.dɛks]

Noun

caudex m ‎(genitive caudicis); third declension

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

Declension

Third declension.

Synonyms

• (bollard, blockhead, idiot): gurdus

Derived terms

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

Descendants

• Portuguese and Spanish: 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, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “caudex”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• caudex in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

1. ↑ Schrader, Otto (1890) Prehistoric antiquities of the Aryan peoples: a manual of comparative philology and the earliest culture, translated from the 2nd German edition by Frank Byron Jevons, London: Charles Griffin and Company