The corpus record — Latin

talus

ankle, knuckle

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

Where it lives

Copa, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 42.19/10k
Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 9.12/10k
Antoninus Caracallus 1 · 4.9/10k
Apocolocyntosis 1 · 3.69/10k
Satyrarum libri 5 · 3.52/10k
Curculio 2 · 3.24/10k
Asinaria 2 · 2.48/10k
Saturae 1 · 2.21/10k
Epistulae 2 · 2.02/10k
De Constantia 1 · 1.89/10k
Rudens 2 · 1.69/10k
De Bello Hispaniensi 1 · 1.65/10k

Densest 12 of 43 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. talus — de Vaan

talus 'ankle, knuckle' [m. ο] (Ρ1.+) Derivatives: taxillus 'a die, cube' (Pompon.+); subtel 'the hollow of the foot' (Prise.)Pit *takslo-. If taxillus is old, and not a recent analogical form on the model of dla - axilla, mala - tarn maxilla (but these are <>stems), as EM object, taxillus would prove that talus goes back to *takslo-. The suggested connection with W. sawdl, Olr. sal 'heeP < PCI. *statla- is … — [de Vaan, s.v. talus, p. 619]

2. talus — de Vaan

talus 'floor', Lith. patalas 'bed, (pi.) feather-bed', Ru. potolok 'ceiling' < PIE *h2po-tolH-o-; maybe OIc. pil(i) [n.] 'board5,pilja [f.] 'deal, plank', pel [n.] 'floor', OE dille 'deal', OHG dil, dilo 'wall, deal'. We find an ablaut alternation *e : *o between *tellu- and the compound *medi-toll-iowhich recalls that of terra : extorris. Telliis is unique in being the only polysyllabic (original) s-stem with long … — [de Vaan, s.v. talus, p. 622]

3. tālus — Lewis & Short

tālus, i, m.from tax-lus; root tak-, tvak-; cf. Gr. ta/ssw, whence taxus; cf. taxillus,

I the ankle, ankle-bone; of animals, the pastern-bone, knuckle-bone (syn. calx).

I Lit., Ov. M. 4, 343; Cels. 8, 1 fin.; 8, 7 fin.; 8, 22; Plin. 11, 46, 106, § 253; Ov. M. 8, 808: talum expellere, to dislocate, Mart. 8, 75, 3: extorsisse, Sen. Ben. 5, 24, 1.—

II Transf.

A The heel: purpura ad talos demissa, Cic. Clu. 40, 111; Hor. S. 1, 2, 29 and 99; cf. id. ib. 1, 9, 11: talos a vertice pulcher ad imos, id. Ep. 2, 2, 4: summaque vix talos contigit unda meos, Ov. Am. 3, 6, 6: nudus, Juv. 7, 16.—Poet.: securus, cadat an recto stet fabula talo, whether it stands or falls, i. e. whether it succeeds or fails, Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 176; cf.: tibi recto vivere talo Ars dedit, i. e. to act well, conduct one's self well, Pers. 5, 104.—

B A die (orig. made from the knuckle-bones of certain animals) of an oblong shape, rounded at the ends, and marked only on the other four sides (cf. alea); while the tesserae were cubes, and marked on all six sides. Four tali were used in playing, but only three tesserae: ad pilam se aut ad talos se aut ad tesseras conferunt, Cic. de Or. 3, 15, 58; id. Sen. 16, 58; Plaut. Curc. 2, 3, 75; 2, 3, 79; id. Capt. 1, 1, 5; Cic. Div. 1, 13, 23; 2, 21, 48; id. Fin. 3, 16, 54; Aug. ap. Suet. Aug. 71; Prop. 4 (5), 8, 45; Hor. C. 1, 4, 18; id. S. 2, 3, 171; 2, 7, 17; cf. Becker, Gallus, 3, p. 253 sq.

4. tälus — Walde–Hofmann

tälus, - m. „Fußknöchel, Fesselknochen, Spielwürfel* seit Plaut., rom. tülo, -ónis Cl.; tälipedäre „auf den Knócheln gehen, wanken* Fest. p. 359, talüris, -e „bis an die Knöchel reichend“ seit Cic., tälärius „in langem, bis auf die Knöchel reichendem Gewand“ seit Cic., zälaria, -ium n. „Flügelschuhe; ein langes, bis an die Knóchel gehendes Gewand“ seit Cic. und Ov. (daraus entl. nhd. Talar über italien. talare), … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. tälus, p. 1553]

In the wild

talos Plautus, Asinaria 5.2
talos Propertius, Elegiae 2.33b.4
talo Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11.27
talo Celsus, De Medicina 8.11.p1
talos Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 23.1.p12
talos Cicero, De Divinatione 2.85

6 of 83 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. talus (scan pp. 622-623; entry #1774). Root candidates: *tellu-, *telh2-, *toln-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. talus (scan p. 699; entry #11619).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. tälus (scan pp. 1553-1554; entry #2924). Root candidates: *teg-, *tag-.

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.