caverna
Meaning
- femininea hollow, cavity, cave, cavern, grotto, hole
striduntque cauernis / stricturae Chalybum et fornacibus ignis anhelat
Chalybian ores hiss in the caverns, and from the furnace mouths puff the hot-panting fires29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 8.420Vae rubeo draconi; nam exterminatio eius festinat. Cavernas ipsius occupabit albus draco, qui Saxones quos invitasti significat.
Woe to the red dragon; for his doom hastens. The white dragon, which represents the Saxons whom you invited, will seize his caves.Geoffrey of Monmouth, Prophesies of Merlin - femininea vault, chamber, cleft of heaven
- femininea hold (cargo compartment of a ship)
- euphemisticfemininevulgarbodily orifice
Crispa tamen cunctas exercet corpore in uno: deglubit, fellat, molitur per utramque cavernam, ne quid inexpertum frustra moritura relinquat.
Crispa, however, practises them all with one body: she masturbates, fellates, and is worked at either hole, lest she should die in vain leaving anything untried.c. 310 CE – c. 394 CE, Ausonius, Epigrams 79 Subscriptum Picturae Mulieris impudicae
Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers
antrum, locus cavus sub terrāChoosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms
Specus · Caverna · Antrum · Spelunca · Spelæum · Fovea · Scrobs
1. Specus and caverna are cavities, whether under-ground, or on a level with the ground,—consequently, a species of antrum; spelunca and spelæum, cavities with a perpendicular opening, leading up into a mountain; scrobs, fovea, and favissa, pits with an horizontal opening, leading down into the earth. 2. Specus (σπέος) is a gap, with a longish opening; caverna (from κύαρ) a hole, with a round opening. 3. Spelunca (σπήλυγξ) is a cavity, in a merely physical relation, with reference to its darkness and dreadfulness; antrum (ἄντρον) a grotto, as a beautiful object, with reference to its romantic appearance and cooling temperature; lastly, spelæum (σπήλαιον) is used only by the poets, as the abode and lurking-hole of wild beasts. 4. Fovea (from φύειν) is a pit meant to remain open, or only covered in order to keep in or to catch a wild beast; scrobs, a pit meant to be filled up again, and only dug, in order to bury something, the root of a tree, for instance, or a corpse. (v. 140.)
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | caverna | cavernae |
| genitive | cavernae | cavernārum |
| dative | cavernae | cavernīs |
| accusative | cavernam | cavernās |
| ablative | cavernā | cavernīs |
| vocative | caverna | cavernae |
caverna terrae, Lucr. 6, 597; Cic. N. D. 2, 9, 25; 2, 60, 151: silicum, rocky vaults (of the interior of Aetna), Luc. 6, 683, for which curvae cavernae, Verg. A. 3, 674: imae, Ov. M. 5, 502; 6, 698: caecae, id. ib. 5, 639; 15, 299: navium, the holds of ships, Cic. de Or. 3, 46, 180 Orell. N. cr.: puppis, Luc. 9, 110: aurium loco, Plin. 11, 37, 50, § 137: vasorum fictilium, id. 12, 3, 7, § 16: arboris, clefts, Gell. 15, 16, 3 al.: caeli, the vault of heaven, Lucr. 4, 171; 6, 252; Cic. Arat. 253: aetheriae, Lucr. 4, 391; aëris, Manil. 1, 202; the excrementary canal of animals, Plin. 8, 55, 81, § 218; 28, 8, 27, § 106; 30, 15, 47, § 137; hence, utraque (mulieris), Aus. Epigr. 71, 7.Charlton Lewis's shorter dictionary for students: the same scholarship in plain, modern definitions.
Origins
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱewh₁-
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱowh₁ós?
- Proto-Italic*kawos
- Latincaverna
Latin -erna Latin caverna From cavus (“hollow, excavated, concave”) + -erna.
- Catalancaverna
- Italiancaverna
- Frenchcavernefrom Old French caverne
- Englishcavernfrom Old French caverne
- Portuguesecaverna
- Romaniancavernă
- Spanishcaverna
- Galiciancaverna
- Russianкаве́рна