aspis

English

Vase showing hoplites bearing aspides.

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀσπίς (aspís).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæspɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

aspis (plural aspides)

1. A type of round shield borne by ancient Greek soldiers
   • 1963, William Kurtz Wimsatt, What to Say About a Poem and Other Essays‎^[1], page 39:

     "shield both large and tough" has never said that aspides are small and weak […]

2. (archaic) An asp or generic venomous snake
   • 1588, Robert Greene, “The History of Dorastus and Fawnia”, in Pandosto: The Triumph of Time‎^[2], published 1907:

     Flesh dipped in the sea Ægeum will never be sweet; the herb Trigion being once bit with an aspis never groweth, and conscience once stained with innocent blood is always tied to a guilty remorse.

3. (palynology) A prominent ring of thickened exine around a pore on a pollen grain
   • 1974, Eugene Cecil Ogden, Manual for Sampling Airborne Pollen‎^[3], →ISBN, page 128:

     As might be expected, characters of the aspides themselves are not of much value in pollen identification, but they are easily recognized and many three-pored, aspidate grains are broadly categorized as "betuloid" in studies of airborne pollen.

Coordinate terms

• (type of shield): hoplon
• (ring of exine): annulus

Derived terms

• aspidate
• protaspis

 

Anagrams

• IASPs, Passi, AISPs, apsis

Dutch

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Was the Middle Dutch word directly borrowed from Latin?”) From Middle Dutch aspis, (ultimately) from Latin aspis, from Ancient Greek ἀσπίς (aspís).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑs.pɪs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: as‧pis

Noun

aspis m (plural aspides or aspides)

1. asp

Derived terms

• aspisadder
• aspisslang
• Egyptische aspis

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

aspis m

1. plural of aspi

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀσπίς (aspís, “round shield or asp”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈas.pis/, [ˈäs̠pɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈas.pis/, [ˈäspis]

Noun

aspis f (genitive aspidis); third declension

1. asp (venomous snake)
2. viper

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	aspis	aspidēs
Genitive	aspidis	aspidum
Dative	aspidī	aspidibus
Accusative	aspidem	aspidēs
Ablative	aspide	aspidibus
Vocative	aspis	aspidēs

Descendants

• → Catalan: àspid
• → English: aspis
• → Galician: áspide
• → Italian: aspide
• → Portuguese: áspide
• → Spanish: áspid

References

• “aspis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “aspis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• aspis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “aspis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “aspis”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “aspis”, in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press

Spanish

Noun

aspis m pl

1. plural of aspi