currus

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *korzos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“vehicle”), from *ḱers- (“to run”), the same root of currō. Doublet of carrus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkur.rus/, [ˈkʊrːʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkur.rus/, [ˈkurːus]

Noun

currus m (genitive currūs); fourth declension

1. chariot, car

   Synonyms: carpentum, vehiculum

   currum agere ― to drive a chariot

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.498–499:

     quō simul ac vēnit, frēnātōs curribus anguēs
     iungit et aequoreās sicca pererrat aquās

     And as soon as she has arrived there, she harnesses the bridled serpents to [her] chariots, and wanders dry over the ocean waves.
     (See Ceres (mythology).)

2. wagon, wain

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	currus	currūs
Genitive	currūs	curruum
Dative	curruī	curribus
Accusative	currum	currūs
Ablative	currū	curribus
Vocative	currus	currūs

Derived terms

• curūlis, currūlis
• currīlis
• autocurrus (New Latin)

References

• “currus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• currus 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)
• currus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to drive: curru vehi, in rheda (Mil. 21. 55)
    
• “currus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “currus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin