The corpus record — Latin

lituus

The crooked staff borne by the augurs, an augur's crook

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

Where it lives

Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuli 1 · 4.65/10k
Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii Augusti 1 · 4.57/10k
de bello Gildonico 1 · 3.16/10k
de consulatu Stilichonis 2 · 2.64/10k
Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti 1 · 2.52/10k
de Bello Gothico 1 · 2.48/10k
Probus 1 · 2.43/10k
Oedipus 1 · 1.69/10k
Psychomachia 1 · 1.67/10k
Hamartigenia 1 · 1.56/10k
Achilleis 1 · 1.39/10k
Noctes Atticae 15 · 1.34/10k

Densest 12 of 33 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. lĭtŭus — Lewis & Short

lĭtŭus, i (

I gen. plur. lituum, Luc. 1, 237; Val. Fl. 6, 166; Sil. 13, 146), m. prob. Etruscan; prim. signif. crooked.

I Lit.

A The crooked staff borne by the augurs, an augur's crook or crosier, augural wand: dextra manu baculum sine nodo aduncum tenens, quem lituum appellaverunt, Liv. 1, 18, 7; cf.: lituus iste vester, quod clarissimum est insigne auguratus, Cic. Div. 1, 17. 30; Geh. 5, 7, 8: Quirinalis, Verg. A. 7, 187: lituo pulcher trabeaque Quirinus, Ov. F. 6, 375.—

B A crooked wind-instrument (used to give signals in war), a curved trumpet, cornet, clarion: lituus sonitus effudit acutos, Enn. ap. Paul. ex Fest. p. 116 Müll. (Ann. v. 522 Vahl.); Verg. A. 6, 167: jam lituus pugnae signa daturus erat, Ov. F. 3, 216: lituo tubae Permixtus sonitus, Hor. C. 1, 1, 23: stridor lituum clangorque tubarum, Luc. 1, 237: cornua cum lituis audita, Juv. 14, 200.—

II Transf., a signal: de lituis, bow/pidos, Cic. Att. 2, 12, 2.—

III Trop., an instigator, author: lituus meae profectionis, Cic. Att. 11, 12, 1.

2. lituus — Walde–Hofmann

lituus, -: m. ,Krummstab der Auguren“ (Liv. 1,18, 7 baculum sine nödö aduneum, quem lituum appellant), jünger (trotz Gell. 5, 8, 10) „das gekrümmte Signalhorn im Kriege, die "ink e* (seit Enn., lítuó ‘cormizw’ Gl): nach Persson Wzerw. 187, Cüntert WuS. 11, 135 usw. von einem *i-tus „Krümmung“ in got. Jjjus m., an. lidr m. „Glied“, ags. as. lid, ahd. Hith, lid m. n. „Gelenk, Glied“ (es-St., Lidén BB. 816 ' lives - … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. lituus, p. 847]

In the wild

lituos Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 5.654
lituo Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 5.8.2
lituos Claudian, de consulatu Stilichonis 1.169
lituo Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 5.8.2
lituis Claudian, Carminum minorum corpusculum 30.214
lituos Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 27.2.3

6 of 76 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. lituus (scan p. 388; entry #6130).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. lituus (scan pp. 847-848; entry #1571).

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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.