The corpus record — Latin

carnifex

carnifex · m

an executioner

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

Where it lives

Pro C. Rabirio Perduellionis Reo Ad Quirites 6 · 16.91/10k
Ad Martyras 2 · 13.44/10k
Peristephanon Liber 16 · 9.11/10k
Commodus Antoninus 3 · 8.66/10k
De Tranquillitate Animi 3 · 3.97/10k
Maximus et Balbinus 1 · 3.18/10k
de bello Gildonico 1 · 3.16/10k
Hamartigenia 2 · 3.13/10k
Divus Claudius 2 · 3.13/10k
Excerpta Controversiae 6 · 2.8/10k
Controversiae 18 · 2.73/10k
Ibis 1 · 2.54/10k

Densest 12 of 65 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

carnĭfex — Lewis & Short

carnĭfex or carnŭfex, fĭcis, m.v. caro-facio,

I an executioner, hangman, Plaut Bacch. 4, 4, 37; id. Capt. 5, 4, 22; id. Rud. 3, 6, 19; Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 45, § 118; id. Phil. 11, 3, 7; id. Quint. 15, 50; id. Rab. Perd. 4, 12; Quint. 5, 10, 59; Lucr. 3, 1017; Cat. 97, 12; Juv. 8, 175 al.; this office was considered so disgraceful that he was not permitted to live in the city, Cic. Rab. Perd. 4 sq.; but in the Subura, Mart. 2, 17, 1 sqq.—

b As a term of reproach, scoundrel, villain, rascal, Plaut. Am. 1, 1, 220; 2, 1, 41; Ter. And. 1, 2, 12; id. Eun. 4, 4, 3; Cic. Pis. 5, 11.—

II Trop., tormenter, murderer, Ter. And. 4, 1, 27 Don.; Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 3, § 9; Liv. 2, 35, 1; 2, 56, 8; 2, 42, 23 fin.: Fortuna gloriae carnifex, murderer, destroyer of fame, Plin. 28, 4, 7, § 39. —Poet., adj., murderous, killing: carnifex avis, Mart. 11, 84, 10: pedes (sc. podagrici), id. 12, 48, 10: manus, Sil. 1, 173: epulae, deadly, Claud. B. Gild. 178: libido, Arn. 1, 41.

In the wild

carnifex Seneca the Elder, Excerpta Controversiae 5.4
carnifex Seneca the Elder, Controversiae 1.3.6
carnifex Prudentius, Peristephanon Liber 10.831
carnificem Cicero, De Domo Sua Ad Pontifices 21
carnifice Seneca the Elder, Controversiae 7.1.22
carnificis Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 9.12.6

6 of 176 attestations shown.

Where it came from

No etymology authority pointer is recorded for this lemma yet — an honest gap, not an omission.

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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.