LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

gladius

gladius

sword

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

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 183 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. gladius — de Vaan

gladius 'sword' [m. ό] (Ρ1.+; n. in Lucil., Var.) Derivatives: gladiator 'who fights with the sword' (Cato+), gladiatorius Of gladiators' (Ter.+). * IE cognates: W. cleddyf, /Co. clethe, MBret. clezeff 'sword' < *kladimo' (Olr. claideb is a loanwordfromW.). The close connection with Celtic words for 'sword', together with the imperfect match of initial consonants, and the semantic field of weaponry, suggests that … — [de Vaan, s.v. gladius, p. 277]

2. glădĭus — Lewis & Short

glădĭus, ĭi, m. (also archaic glă-dĭum, ii, n., Lucil. ap. klada/sai, to brandish],

Non. 208, 13; cf. Varr. L. L. 9, § 81 Müll.; Quint. 1, 5, 16; v. gladiola under gladiolus, I.) [perh. akin to clades, cardo; cf.
I a sword (syn. the poet. ensis, acc. to Quint. 10, 1, 11; cf. also: spatha, acinaces, sica, pugio).
I Lit.: arripuit gladium, Plaut. Capt. 4, 4, 7; id. Cas. 2, 4, 28: eripite isti gladium, quae sui est impos animi, id. Cas. 3, 5, 9: succincti gladiis media regione cracentes, Enn. ap. Paul. ex Fest. p. 53 Müll. (Ann. v. 497 Vahl.): contecti gladiis, id. ap. Philarg. ad Verg. G. 4, 230 (Ann. v. 415 ib.): occursat ocius gladio comminusque rem gerit Varenus, Caes. B. G. 5, 44, 11: pila miserunt, celeriterque gladios strinxerunt, drew, id. B. C. 3, 93, 1: gladium stringere, Cic. Phil. 2, 9, 21; Verg. A. 12, 278: destringere, Caes. B. G. 1, 25, 2; 7, 12 fin.; id. B. C. 1, 46, 1; 1, 47, 3; Cic. Off. 3, 31, 112; id. Cat. 3, 1, 2; Liv. 27, 13, 9 et saep.: educere, Caes. B. G. 5, 44, 8; Cic. Att. 4, 3, 3; Sall. C. 51, 36; cf.: educere e vagina, Cic. Inv. 2, 4, 14: nudare, Ov. F. 2, 693: recondere in vaginam, Cic. Inv. 2, 4, 14; cf. condere, Quint. 8 praef. § 15: xiphion gladi praebet speciem, Plin. 25, 11, 89, § 138.—
b Prov.
(a) Suo sibi hunc gladio jugulo, fight him with his own weapons, Ter. Ad. 5, 8, 35; cf. the same, Cic. Caecin. 29, 82.—
(b) Cum illum (Clodium) plumbeo gladio jugulatum iri tamen diceret (Hortensius), i. e. with very little trouble, Cic. Att. 1, 16, 2. —
(g) Ignem gladio scrutare, stir the fire with a sword (= pu=r maxai/ra| skaleu/ein, Pythag. ap. Diog. Laert. 8, 17), Hor. S. 2, 3, 276.—
(d) Gladium alicui dare qui se occidat, to give one the means of ruining himself, Plaut. Trin. 1, 2, 92.—
II Transf.
A Murder, death: cum tanta praesertim gladiorum sit impunitas, Cic. Phil. 1, 11, 27; cf. id. Fam. 10, 2, 1; Vell. 2, 3, 3; 2, 125, 2; gladiorum licentia, Cic. Fam. 4, 9 fin.; id. 2, 22, 2: qui universas provincias regunt, jus gladii habent, i. e. the power of life and death, Dig. 1, 18, 6, § 8: potestas gladii, ib. 2, 1, 3; Capitol. Gord. 9.—
B A gladiatorial combat: qui cum maxime dubitat, utrum se ad gladium locet an ad cultrum, Sen. Ep. 87 med.: comparare homines ad gladium, Lact. 6, 12 fin.: servus ad gladium vel ad bestias vel in metallum damnatus, Dig. 29, 2, 25.—
C Gladius vomeris, a ploughshare, Plin. 18, 18, 48, § 172.—
D The sword-fish, also called xiphias (cifi/as), Plin. 9, 2, 1, § 3; 9, 15, 21, § 54; 32, 11, 53, § 145.

In the wild

6 of 998 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. gladius (scan p. 277; entry #695). Root candidates: *gladio-, *kladio-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. gladius (scan pp. 299-300; entry #4698).

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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.