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(UK,Australia,New Zealand) The top (male or female) academic student in a school, or in a year of school; the top student in a specified academic discipline.
1849, Wilhelm Steven, The History of the High School of Edinburgh, page 191:
[…]on the motion of Sir John Marjoribanks, Bart., Lord Provost, unanimously resolved, July 27, 1814, “that there be annually presented by the town of Edinburgh to the boy at the head of the Greek class, taught by the rector of the High School, a gold medal of the same value [five guineas] as that annually presented to the dux of the Latin class.”
He finished the year dux of Form III with an average 90 per cent over eight subjects. The school did not award end-of-year marks in fourth and fifth forms, but Evans′ report for those years shows he passed all subjects in both years and was again dux in Form V.
This school was where my father had been dux in his senior year in 1937 just as his father had been dux at the Rockhampton Grammar School27 before the turn of the 19th century.
“ Portantur avārī / Pygmaliōnis opēs pelagō; dux fēmina factī.”
“ The wealth of avaricious Pygmalion they carry across the sea, a woman the leader of the deed.” (Venus tells Aeneas about Dido. See: Pygmalion of Tyre.)
“ Spēluncam Dīdō dux et Troiānus eandem dēvenient. .”
“Dido, the , and the Trojan will arrive at the same cavern.” (Ambiguity: Queen Dido, ruler of Carthage, here may be a guide, who is “leading the way” into the cave. Aeneas, on the other hand, leads the Trojans as their chieftain or captain. The alliteration of “Dido dux” aligns the word with the queen; however, the juxtaposition can also be understood as Dido and Aeneas being “side-by-side” as they enter together.)
Usage notes
During the Roman Republic, dux could refer to anyone who commanded troops including foreign leaders but was not a formal military rank. In writing his commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar uses the term only for Celtic generals, with one exception for a Roman commander who held no official rank.
“dux”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“dux”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
dux 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)
dux in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
a demagogue, agitator: plebis dux, vulgi turbator, civis turbulentus, civis rerum novarum cupidus
(ambiguous) to be guided by ambition: gloria duci
(ambiguous) to cherish a hope: spe duci, niti, teneri
(ambiguous) to be misled by a vain hope: inani, falsa spe duci, induci
“dux”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
dux in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
“dux”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN