English

Noun

oculus ‎(plural oculi)

1. (architecture) A window or other opening that has an oval or circular shape (as of an eye).

   One can glimpse the sky through the oculus of the Pantheon in Rome.

Translations

Latin

oculus (an eye)

Alternative forms

• oclus

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *okʷelos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ókʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- ‎(“eye; to see”), probably through a later root *ōkʷelos. Cognates include with Sanskrit अक्षि ‎(ákṣi), Ancient Greek ὄσσε ‎(ósse), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉 ‎(áugō), Old English ēaġe (English eye), Proto-Slavic *oko.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.ku.lus/, [ˈɔ.kʊ.ɫʊs]

Noun

oculus m ‎(genitive oculī); second declension

1. (anatomy) An eye
   • 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations (Latin text and English translations here)

     Quam diu quisquam erit qui te defendere audeat, vives, et vives ita ut nunc vivis, multis meis et firmis praesidiis obsessus ne commovere te contra rem publicam possis. Multorum te etiam oculi et aures non sentientem, sicut adhuc fecerunt, speculabuntur atque custodient.

     "As long as one person exists who can dare to defend you, you shall live; but you shall live as you do now, surrounded by my many and trusty guards, so that you shall not be able to stir one finger against the republic: many eyes and ears shall still observe and watch you, as they have hitherto done, though you shall not perceive them."

   • 405, Jerome and others, Vulgate, Isaias 64:4

     a saeculo non audierunt neque auribus perceperunt oculus non vidit Deus absque te quae praeparasti expectantibus te

     "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."

2. (by extension) the power of sight
3. a spot resembling an eye, such as on a peacock feather
4. (botany) a bud, bulb on a root
5. (figuratively) the mind's eye

Inflection

Second declension.

Derived terms

Related terms

• oculāriārius
• oculāre
• oculāriter
• oculāta

Descendants

References

• oculus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• oculus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• OCULUS in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “oculus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to raise the eyes to heaven; to look up to the sky: oculos tollere, attollere ad caelum
    
  • I am losing my eyesight and getting deaf: neque auribus neque oculis satis consto
    
  • to turn one's gaze on; to regard: oculos conicere in aliquem
    
  • to look in every direction: oculos circumferre
    
  • to gaze intently all around: in omnes partes aciem (oculorum) intendere
    
  • to draw every one's eyes upon one: omnium oculos (et ora) ad se convertere
    
  • to turn one's eyes (ears, attention) towards an object: oculos (aures, animum) advertere ad aliquid
    
  • his eyes are always fixed on some one's face: oculi in vultu alicuius habitant
    
  • to keep one's eyes on the ground: oculos figere in terra and in terram
    
  • to feast one's eyes with the sight of..: oculos pascere aliqua re (also simply pasci aliqua re)
    
  • to turn one's gaze away from an object: oculos deicere, removere ab aliqua re
    
  • to close the eyes of a dying person: oculos operire (morienti)
    
  • to dazzle a person: oculorum aciem alicui praestringere (also simply praestringere)
    
  • to lose one's sight: oculos, lumina amittere
    
  • to deprive a person of his eyes: oculis privare aliquem
    
  • to be blind: oculis captum esse (vid. sect. IV. 6., note auribus, oculis...)
    
  • something presents itself to my vision: ante oculos aliquid versatur
    
  • to picture a thing to oneself; to imagine: oculis, ante oculos (animo) proponere aliquid
    
  • picture to yourselves the circumstances: ante oculos vestros (not vobis) res gestas proponite
    
  • to see with the mind's eye: oculis mentis videre aliquid
    
  • to cherish as the apple of one's eye: in oculis aliquem ferre
    
  • to cherish as the apple of one's eye: aliquis est mihi in oculis
    
  • to go out of sight, disappear: abire ex oculis, e conspectu alicuius
    
  • to come within the sphere of the senses: sub sensum or sub oculos, sub aspectum cadere
    
  • the world of sense, the visible world: res sensibus or oculis subiectae (De Fin. 5. 12. 36)
    
  • the world of sense, the visible world: res quas oculis cernimus
    
  • I haven't had a wink of sleep: somnum oculis meis non vidi (Fam. 7. 30)
    
  • a vague notion presents itself to my mind: aliquid animo meo obversatur (cf. sect. III, s. v. oculi)
    
  • to bring a thing vividly before the eyes: ante oculos ponere aliquid
    
  • to represent a thing vividly: oculis or sub oculos, sub aspectum subicere aliquid
    
  • to scrutinise, examine closely: perlustrare, lustrare oculis aliquid
    
• oculus in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia