caduceus

English

Etymology

Via Latin cādūceus, cādūceum, adaptation of Doric Ancient Greek καρύκειον (karúkeion, “herald’s wand or staff”). This and Attic Greek κηρύκειον (kērúkeion) are derived from κῆρυξ (kêrux, “herald, public messenger”). Related to κηρύσσω (kērússō, “I announce”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈdu.si.əs/, /kəˈdjuː.si.əs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

caduceus (plural caducei)

1. The official wand carried by a herald in ancient Greece and Rome, specifically the one carried in mythology by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, usually represented with two snakes twined around it.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Caduceus the rod of Mercury, / With which he wonts the Stygian realmes inuade […]

2. A symbol (☤) representing a staff with two snakes wrapped around it, used to indicate merchants and messengers. It is also sometimes incorrectly substituted for the rod of Asclepius as a symbol of medicine.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:caduceus.

Translations

See also

• Aesculapian staff

Further reading

English Wikipedia has an article on:

caduceus

Wikipedia

• Wikipedia article on the Rod of Asclepius

Anagrams

• caucused

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kaːˈduː.ke.us/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kaˈdu.t͡ʃe.us/,

Noun

cādūceus m (genitive cādūceī); second declension

1. Alternative form of cādūceum

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Descendants

• → English: caduceus
• → German: Caduceus, Kaduzeus
• → Polish: kaduceusz

References

• “caduceus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “caduceus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “caduceus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin