cervix

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See also: cérvix

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cervīx (“neck”), see below.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsɜː.vɪks/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈsɝ.vɪks/

Noun

cervix (plural cervixes or cervices)

  1. (anatomy) The neck.
    • 1979, Clive Sinclair, Hearts of Gold, Penguin, published 1983, page 10:
      I put my hands on Madeleine's hot cheeks, making a prize cup of my hands and her cervix, and tilted her head to one side.
  2. (anatomy) The necklike portion of an organ or part of the body.
  3. (now specifically) The cervix uteri, or lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the vagina.
    • 2023 January 23, Anna Bawden, The Guardian:
      Screening involves taking a small sample of cells from the cervix and looking for high-risk HPV that could develop into cancer if left untreated.

Derived terms

Translations

neck — see neck
neck-like part — see neck

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cervīx, see below.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsɛr.vɪks/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: cer‧vix

Noun

cervix m (plural cervixen or cervices, diminutive cervixje n)

  1. neck
  2. The cervix between the uterus and the vagina.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“the head”) (compare cerebrum) and *weyk- (“to curve, bend”) (compare vinciō), literally “where the head turns”.

Pronunciation

Noun

cervīx f (genitive cervīcis); third declension

  1. (anatomy, zootomy) neck, nape
    Synonym: collum
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.415–416:
      apta iugō cervīx nōn est feriendā secūrī:
      vīvat et in dūrā saepe labōret humō.
      The neck suitable for the yoke should not be struck by the axe:
      may it live long and labor often in the hard soil.
      (Agriculture dawns as Ceres teaches humans to yoke oxen to the plow and instead use other animals for sacrificial rites. See Ceres (mythology).)
  2. (figuratively)
    1. great burden, danger (from the figure taken from bearing the yoke)
    2. boldness, headstrong behavior
  3. (transferred sense) (of an object) neck
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‘...levis odorato cervix manabit olivo, et feries nudos veste fluente pedes’- Propertius 3.17

Note: Often used in the plural with singular meaning.

  • 44 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Philippics :
    Consules designati negabant se audere in senatum venire; patriae liberatores urbe carebant ea, cuius a cervicibus iugum servile deiecerant.
    The consuls-elect said they did not dare attend the senate. The liberators of their native land were parted from the very city from whose neck they had cast off the yoke of slavery.

Inflection

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative cervīx cervīcēs
Genitive cervīcis cervīcum
Dative cervīcī cervīcibus
Accusative cervīcem cervīcēs
Ablative cervīce cervīcibus
Vocative cervīx cervīcēs

Derived terms

Descendants

References

  • “cervix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “cervix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • cervix 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)
  • cervix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to break a person's neck: cervices (in Cic. only in plur.) frangere alicui or alicuius
    • a sword hangs over his neck: gladius cervicibus impendet
    • the foe is at our heels, is upon us: hostis in cervicibus alicuius est
    • to shake off the yoke of slavery: iugum servile a cervicibus deicere (Phil. 1. 2. 6)
  • Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “cervīx”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 2: C Q K, page 613

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French cérvix.

Noun

cervix n (uncountable)

  1. cervix

Declension

declension of cervix (singular only)
singular
n gender indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) cervix cervixul
genitive/dative (unui) cervix cervixului
vocative cervixule
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