clāvicula

Meaning

1. diminutivediminutive of clāvis (“key”)
   Quālīs ferrātōs sŭbĭcit clāvīcŭlă dentes, / Succutit et foribus praeducti vincula claustri, / Talis disposita est stellis.Germanicus Caesar, Aratea 198 (authorship disputed)
2. the tendril of a vine
   Vītis quidem, quae nātūra cadūca est et, nisi fūlta est, fertur ad terram, eadem, ut sē ērigat clāviculīs suīs quasi manibus quicquid est nacta, complectitur […].Indeed the vine, which is naturally prone to falling and is trailed along the ground unless supported, nonetheless embraces whatever it catches hold of with [its] tendrils — as if they were hands — in order to raise itself up. (Cicero first used the example to describe one of the fascinations of an elderly farmer.)106 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Cato Maior de Senectute 15.52
   Iam vērō vītēs sīc clāviculīs adminicula tamquam manibus adprehendunt atque ita sē ērigunt ut animantēs […].The vines we see take hold on props with [their] tendrils, as if with hands, and raise themselves as if they were animated. (Cicero used the example again, and similarly worded, to describe the life-force in nature.)45 BCE, Cicero, De natura deorum 2.120
3. a bar or bolt of a door
4. a pivot
5. New Latinthe clavicle, collar bone

Declension

Origins

1. Proto-Indo-European*kleh₂w-
2. Proto-Indo-European*kleh₂w-i-s
3. Proto-Italic*klāwis
4. Latinclāvicula

Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Proto-Italic *-kelos Latin -cula Latin clāvicula From clāvis (“a key”) + -cula (diminutive nominal suffix).

In English words that came into English from clāvicula

• clavicleclāvicula
• subclaviansubclavius
• subclaviussubclavius

Related words