The corpus record — Latin

ensis

sword

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

Where it lives

Octavia 9 · 17.2/10k
Punica 127 · 16.65/10k
Panegyricus de tertio consulatu Honorii Augusti 2 · 14.47/10k
Thebais 88 · 14.08/10k
Quomodo Trinitas Unus Deus Ac Non Tres Dii (De Trinitate) 4 · 13.77/10k
Cupido cruciatur 1 · 13.57/10k
de bello Gildonico 4 · 12.64/10k
Phoenissae 5 · 12.23/10k
In Rufinum 7 · 12.22/10k
Ausonii de XII Caesaribus per Suetonium Tranquillum scriptis 1 · 11.76/10k
Phaedra 8 · 11.25/10k
Thyestes 7 · 11.12/10k

Densest 12 of 74 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. ensis — de Vaan

ensis 'sword' [m. i] (Cato+; almost only in poetry) Derivatives: ensiculus 'toy sword' (PL). Pit. *ensi- 'sword\ PIE *(h!e)ns-i- 'sword, large knife'? All the alleged IE cognates are uncertain: the connection with Skt. asi- [m.] 'sword, slaughtering knife' is doubted by EWAia I: 145; in Palaic hasira- 'dagger', there is no trace of a nasal. The appurtenance of Gr. δορ 'sword', allegedly an Aeolic reflex of *«s-r, is … — [de Vaan, s.v. ensis, p. 204]

2. ensis — Lewis & Short

ensis, is, m.Sanscr. root as-, asyati, hurl; asi, sword,

I a sword, brand.

I Prop. (almost exclusively in the poets; synon. with gladius, acc. to Quint. 10, 1, 11; cf. also spatha, acinaces, sica, mucro, pugio), Lucr. 5, 1293; Cic. poët. ap. Gell. 15, 6, 3; and id. N. D. 2, 63 fin.; Tib. 1, 3, 47; 1, 10, 1: ensem haesurum jugulo puto, Ov. Tr. 1, 1, 484; Verg. A. 2, 393; 553 et saep.; Liv. 7, 10, 9.—

II Meton.

A War, Sil. 7, 167; Stat. S. 4, 7, 45; cf.: lateque vagatur ensis, i. e. slaughter, Luc. 2, 102.—

B For defensor: MARCELLO ROMANORVM ENSI, Inscr. Momms. 1984.—

C Royal sway, Luc. 5, 61.—

D Ensis, the constellation Orion, Val. Fl. 2, 68; cf. ensifer.

3. énsis — Walde–Hofmann

énsis, -/s m. „Schwert“ (seit Cato, nur dicht. [schon bei Plaut. nur gladius, machaera; bei Cic. und Petron nur in Versen, nicht bei Caesar, Vitr. u. a.; rom. nur gledius, spatha], Demin. -iculus [a f. nur Gramm.) Lehnübersetzung Plt. von gr. Eiplöiov, Schwertlein als Kinderschmuck; énsiger seit Ov., -fer seit Lucan, dicht. nach Eip-hpng, Eipn-pöpog [Ernout-Meillet 290), -potens Coripp. nach armipotöns): Aus *nsi-s … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. énsis, p. 438]

In the wild

enses Statius, Thebais 8.343
ensem Statius, Thebais 3.299
ense Ovid, Epistulae 11.97
enses Statius, Thebais 4.10
ensem Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 8.19
ense Tertullian, Adversus Judaeos Liber 9

6 of 653 attestations shown.

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. ensis (scan p. 204; entry #486). Root candidates: *ensi-.
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. énsis (scan p. 438; entry #1012). Root candidates: *anstha-, *ga-, *ans-.

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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.