clipeus

English

Etymology

From Latin clipeus.

Noun

clipeus (plural clipei)

1. A shield worn by soldiers of ancient Greece and Rome.
2. An ornamental disk of marble in this shape.
3. Part of the exoskeleton of an insect between the carapace and mandibles.

Translations

shield

• Italian: clipeo m
• Spanish: clípeo m

ornamental disk

• Italian: clipeo m

part of an insect's exoskeleton

• Italian: clipeo m

Anagrams

• Pulices, spicule

Latin

Alternative forms

• clupeus, clypeus

Etymology

The origin is uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Italic *klupeos. It may be from Etruscan.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkli.pe.us/, [ˈklʲɪpeʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkli.pe.us/, [ˈkliːpeus]

Noun

clipeus m (genitive clipeī); second declension

1. round shield (especially of metal)
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.225–227:

     “At geminī lāpsū dēlūbra ad summa dracōnēs
     effugiunt saevaeque petunt Trītōnidīs arcem
     sub pedibusque deae clipeīque sub orbe teguntur.”

     “But the two serpents escape by gliding [away] to the highest temples [of Troy], and seek the citadel of the fierce Tritonian [Minerva], [where] they shelter beneath the feet of the goddess and under the disc of [her] shield.”

2. disk of the sun
3. vault of the sky

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	clipeus	clipeī
Genitive	clipeī	clipeōrum
Dative	clipeō	clipeīs
Accusative	clipeum	clipeōs
Ablative	clipeō	clipeīs
Vocative	clipee	clipeī

References

• “clipeus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “clipeus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• clipeus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• clipeus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “clipeus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “clipeus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin