caudex

From Latin caudex (“tree trunk”, “tree stem”); compare codex.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôʹdĕks, IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːdɛks/,[1]

caudex (plural caudices or caudexes)[1]

1. (botany)[1] An enlargement of the stem, branch or root of a woody plant, usually serving to store water.

• caudicle
• codex

• cōdex

Uncertain, but some have connected it to Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃s- (“ash tree”), the same source as English ash, Old Norse askr, Welsh onnen, Latin ornus (“wild mountain ash”), Lithuanian úosis, Russian я́сень (jásenʹ), Albanian ah (“beech”), Ancient Greek ὀξύα (oxúa, “beech”), Old Armenian հացի (hacʿi). The connection stems from the assumption that Indo-Europeans used hollowed out ash trees as boats and skiffs.[1]

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkau̯.deks/, [ˈkäu̯d̪ɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkau̯.deks/, [ˈkäːu̯d̪eks]

caudex m (genitive caudicis); third declension

1. A tree trunk, stump.
2. A bollard; post.
3. A book, writing; notebook, account book.
4. (derogatory) A blockhead, idiot.

Third-declension noun.

• (bollard, blockhead, idiot): gurdus

• caudica (“a raft”)
• caudicālis
• caudicārius
• caudiceus

See also cōdex.

• → Catalan: càudex
• → Portuguese: cáudice

• “caudex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “caudex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caudex 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)
• caudex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “caudex”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers