The corpus record — Latin

aculeus

aculeus · m

a sting

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

De Clementia 2 · 2.4/10k
De Corona 1 · 2.06/10k
Pro L. Flacco 2 · 1.83/10k
De Carnis Resurrectione 4 · 1.76/10k
De Tranquillitate Animi 1 · 1.32/10k
Florida 1 · 1.27/10k
Naturalis Historia 49 · 1.24/10k
Pro M. Caelio 1 · 1.18/10k
Pro P. Sulla 1 · 1.07/10k
De Partitione Oratoria 1 · 1.02/10k
Trinummus 1 · 1.02/10k
Fabulae Aesopiae 1 · 0.91/10k

Densest 12 of 42 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. ăcūlĕus — Lewis & Short

ăcūlĕus, i, m.acc. to Prisc. 618 P. dim. from 1. acus, with the gender changed, like diecula fr. dies, cf. Val. Prob. 1463 P.,

I a sting.

I Lit.

A Of animals: apis aculeum sine clamore ferre non possumus, Cic. Tusc. 2, 22; so Plin. 11, 17, 17: neparum, Cic. Fin. 5, 15 al.—Also, the spur of fowls, Col. 8, 2, 8: locustarum, Vulg. Apoc. 9, 10.—

B Of plants, a spine or prickle: spinarum, Plin. 13, 9, 19: carduorum, id. 20, 23, 99.—

C Of an arrow or dart, the point, Liv. 38, 21, 11.—

II Fig., a sting.

A Of a sharp, cutting remark: pungunt quasi aculeis interrogatiunculis, Cic. Fin. 4, 3; so id. Ac. 2, 31; id. Planc. 24 al.; Liv. 23, 42, 5.—

B Of harsh treatment: aculeos severitatis judicum evellere, Cic. Clu. 55 fin.; so id. Cael. 12, 29.—

C Of painful thought or care: meum ille pectus pungit aculeus, quid illi negoti fuerit ante aedīs meas, Plant. Trin. 4, 2, 158: domesticarum sollicitudinum, Cic. Att. 1, 18.

2. aculeus — Walde–Hofmann

aculeus, -i m. (-a, -ae f. nach spina, sptl., rom.) „Stachel von Tieren, Pflanzen usw." (seit Plaut., rom.): zu acuö, äcer, Weiterbildun des u-St. aku- (5. 2. acus); vgl. bes. ags. awwi m. „Gabel“, anord. sod-all ,Fleischgabel^ (gem. *ahwala-, idg. *aku-olo-), kymr. ebil .Bohrer*, korn. epill hoern „clavus*, mbret. ebil „Pflock, Nagel* (*aku-iljos). Walde-P. I 29. — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. aculeus, p. 43]

In the wild

aculeos Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 11.21
aculeum Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes 2.52
aculeo Livy, Ab urbe condita 2.23.42.5
aculei Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 9.10.pr
aculeum Livy, Ab urbe condita 4.45.37.11
aculeum Cicero, In C. Verrem 2.3.95

6 of 120 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. aculeus (scan p. 43; entry #97). Root candidates: *ahwala-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.