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1904, B. O. Flower, “Editorials”, in B. O. Flower, editor, The Arena, volume 32, VI. Dr. Bell shows how hopeless insanity was a fruit of public parsimony, page 540, column 2:
His hands were restrained by means of a clavis and bolt (of iron), appropriated to each wrist, and united by a padlock.
1784 July 12, William Cowper, “To the Rev. William Unwin.”, in Robert Southey, editor, The Works of William Cowper, with a Life of the Author, volume 5, published 1836, page 54:
Homer, with a clavis, I have had possession of some years.
There are many disadvantages in using a clavis intended for another country, which necessarily includes plants that are absent from our islands while it omits some that are present and neglects the peculiarities of our island flora.
From Proto-Italic*klāwis. Either a secondary i-stem derivation of the Proto-Indo-European*kleh₂u-(“nail, pin, hook - instruments, of old use for locking doors”) which gave also Latin clāvus(“nail”), an inherited Indo-European word originally denoting an instrument for unlocking doors, or a loanword from dialectal Ancient Greek*κλᾱϝίς(*klāwís) (Classical κλείς(kleís)), from the same Proto-Indo-European root.[1]
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “clāvis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 119
Further reading
“clavis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“clavis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
clavis 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)
clavis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“clavis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“clavis”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
