English

Noun

pilum ‎(plural pila or pilums)

1. (historical) A Roman military javelin.
   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin 2000, p. 21:

     Besides a lighter spear, the Roman legionary grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin whose utmost length was about six feet and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of about eighteen inches.

   • 2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz 2011, p. 371:

     Verica plucked a pilum from the hands of the nearest legionary – the soldier didn't react – and handed it to me.

Translations

References

• pilum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

pīlum (throwing spear)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *pistlom, from Proto-Indo-European *pis-tlo-, from *peys- ‎(“to crush”). See pīla.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.lum/, [ˈpiː.ɫũ]

Noun

pīlum n ‎(genitive pīlī); second declension

1. a javelin, throwing spear

Inflection

Second declension.

Descendants

References

• pilum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pilum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• PILUM in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to throw down the javelins (pila) and fight with the sword: omissis pilis gladiis rem gerere
    
• pilum in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pilum in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin