The corpus record — Latin

forceps

a pair of tongs

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

Where it lives

Saturae 1 · 2.21/10k
Georgicon 1 · 0.71/10k
Peristephanon Liber 1 · 0.57/10k
Carmina 1 · 0.45/10k
Metamorphoses 3 · 0.39/10k
Satyricon 1 · 0.33/10k
Aeneid 2 · 0.32/10k
Epistulae. Selections. 1 · 0.23/10k

What it meant

1. forceps — Lewis & Short

forceps, cĭpis (

I gen. plur. forcipium, Lucil. ap. Charis. p. 74), m. and f. (m., Cels. 7, 12; 8, 4; f., Ov. M. 12, 277) [root in Sanscr. ghar-mas, glow, warmth; Gr. qer-, qe/rmh, qe/ros; Lat. for-mus, for-nus, fornax and cap-io], a pair of tongs, pincers, forceps (cf.: forfex, volsella): forcipem invenit Cinyra Agriopae filius, Plin. 7, 56, 57, § 195.

I Lit.: Cyclopes versant tenaci forcipe ferrum, Verg. G. 4, 175; firetongs, id. A. 12, 404; Ov. M. 12, 277: uncis forcipibus dentes evelleret, Lucil. ap. Charis. p. 74 P.; pincers for drawing teeth, Cels. 7, 12; 8, 4; and for other surgical purposes, id. 7, 5; Col. 6, 26, 2: compressa forcipe lingua, Ov. M. 6, 556: ceu guttura forcipe pressus, id. ib. 9, 78: ferrei, iron tongs or hooks attached to a tackle, and which, by firmly grasping a mass of stone or marble, raise it aloft, Vitr. 10, 2 (al. forfices).—

II Transf., a kind of battlearray, with diverging wings, Cato ap. Fest. s. v. serra, p. 344 Müll.; Gell. 10, 9, 1; Veg. Mil. 3, 18 (al. forfex).

2. forceps — Walde–Hofmann

forceps, -eipis (Gen. Pl. -ium Lucil) f, jünger (seit Vitr.) m. ,Zange^ und „Schere“ (hdschr. in beiden Bedd. auch forpex [seit Colum.] und forfex; seit Cato, rom. nur forfex „Schere“, ebenso forficula f. „kleine Schere mit Plin. [nach Brandıs falsch überlief.| bzw. Apul; davon forfieö, -äre Chiron): synkopiert aus *formucapés (erschlossene, aber wohl richtige Form; *formo-cap-s) forcipés dictae, quod forma capiant, … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. forceps, p. 558]

In the wild

6 of 11 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. forceps (scan p. 270; entry #4227).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. forceps (scan pp. 558-564; entry #1152). Root candidates: *bherdh-, *bher-, *bhers-.

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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.