The corpus record — Latin

cavus

hollow, excavated, concave, deep (of water)

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

Where it lives

Cupido cruciatur 1 · 13.57/10k
Moretum, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 12.92/10k
Cento Nuptialis 1 · 7.33/10k
Oedipus 2 · 3.37/10k
Panegyricus de sexto consulatu Honorii Augusti 1 · 2.4/10k
Georgicon 3 · 2.12/10k
De agri cultura 2 · 1.28/10k
De Medicina 11 · 1.07/10k
Epistulae 1 · 1.01/10k
Fabulae Aesopiae 1 · 0.91/10k
De Architectura 5 · 0.87/10k
Satyrarum libri 1 · 0.7/10k

Densest 12 of 23 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. cavus — de Vaan

cavus 'hollow, excavated, concave, deep (of water)' [adj. o/a] (Enn.+) Derivatives: cavum [n.] 'a hole, hollow' (P1.+), cavatus 'hollow' (Varro+), cavare 'to make hollow' (Lucr.+), caverna 'cave, hole1 (Varro, Lucr,+), cavea 'cage; auditorium of atheatre* (PL+); maybe cavilla 'jesting, banter' (PL), cavillatid 'banter, sophistry' (Pl.+J, cavittator 'jester, banterer1 (PL+). Pit *kawo- < *kowo-. PIE *kouH-o- … — [de Vaan, s.v. cavus, p. 115]

2. căvus — Lewis & Short

căvus, a, um, adj.root ku-, kue/w, to swell, etc.; cf.: koi=los, keno/s,

I hollow, excavated, concave (opp. plenus, full, round; class.).

I Prop.: cava conveniant plenis, Lucr. 6, 1085: cicutae, id. 5, 1383: tibia, id. 2, 620: concha, Verg. A. 6, 171: aes, id. ib. 3, 240: testudo, id. G. 4, 464; Hor. Epod. 14, 11: bucina, Ov. M. 1, 335 et saep.: ungula, Enn. Ann. 419 Vahl.: fornaces, Lucr. 7, 202: montes, id. 5, 955: specus, Enn. Ann. 420 Vahl.: cavernae, Verg. A. 2, 53: trabs, id. ib. 3, 191 et saep.: trunci, Hor. C. 2, 19, 12: ilex, id. Epod. 16, 47: saxa, id. C. 3, 13, 14 et saep.: vena, the hollow vein, Cic. N. D. 2, 55, 138: nubes, Lucr. 6, 127; 6, 176; 6, 272; Verg. A. 1, 516; 5, 810 al.—Hence also of a darkness enveloping one as a cloud: umbra, Verg. A. 2, 360: flumina, the deepchannelled mountain streams, id. G. 1, 326; 4, 427; cf. Luc. 1, 396: luna, waning (cf. cavo), Plin. 8, 54, 80, § 215.—

B Subst.: căvum, i, n. (access. form căvus, i, m. (sc. locus), Varr. R. R. 3, 15, 1; Hor. S. 2, 6, 116; id. Ep. 1, 7, 33; Phaedr. 4, 6, 3; Col. 12, 8), a hollow, cavity, hole, Cato, R. R. 128; Plaut. Men. 1, 2, 49; Lucr. 5, 1382; Liv. 24, 34, 9; Verg. G. 1, 184; Hor. S. 2, 3, 173; Plin. 2, 79, 81, § 192; 11, 51, 112, § 266 et saep.: cava caeli, Enn. Trag. 131 Vahl.; cf.: cava caerula, id. ib. 332 Vahl.; hence, căvum aedĭum (contr. căvae-dĭum, Phn. Ep. 2, 17, 5), the inner court of Roman houses (cf. Vitr. 6, 3 Schneid.; O. Müll. Etrusk. 1, p. 255, and Archaeol. § 293, III.), Varr. L. L. 5, § 161; Vitr. 6, 3; Dict. of Antiq.—

II In late Lat., trop.: menses, which have only 30 days (opp. menses pleni, which have 31 days), Censor. 20.—

b = inanis, vain, empty: gloria, Paul. Nol. Carm. 22, 139: opes, id. ib. 21, 912.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. cavus (scan p. 115; entry #234). Root candidates: *kawo-, *kowo-, *kouio-.

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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.