scopulus

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek σκόπελος (skópelos, “lookout place: hence peak, headland, promontory”), from σκοπέω (skopéō). Compare specula and specus, from the same root.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈsko.pu.lus/, [ˈs̠kɔpʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsko.pu.lus/, [ˈskɔːpulus]

Noun

scopulus m (genitive scopulī); second declension

1. crag, cliff (projecting rock)
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.180–181:

     Aenēās scopulum intereā cōnscendit, et omnem
     prōspectum lātē pelagō petit

     Meanwhile Aeneas scales the cliff, and searches the whole panorama [of the] wide open sea

2. rock (in/under the sea)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	scopulus	scopulī
Genitive	scopulī	scopulōrum
Dative	scopulō	scopulīs
Accusative	scopulum	scopulōs
Ablative	scopulō	scopulīs
Vocative	scopule	scopulī

Derived terms

• scopulōsus

Descendants

• Italian: scoppio (“cliff”) (medieval hapax, Umbria)
• Vulgar Latin: *scoculum (see there for further descendants)
• → Italian: scopulo (learned)

References

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “scŏpŭlus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 11: S–Si, page 325

Further reading

• “scopulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “scopulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• scopulus 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)
• scopulus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the ship strikes on the rocks: navis ad scopulos alliditur (B. C. 3. 27)