English → Latin
“shaft” in Latin
scāpusstem, stalk (of a plant); shaft (or similar upright column)bracchiumforearm; arm (shoulder to fingers); limb of an animal (e.g. claw, tentacle)puteuswell; cisternspecuscave, grotto; ditch, canal, drain; pitfodīnaA place from which a mineral is dug; mine, pit.hastīlea shaft of a spear or javelin; a spear, javelin; any wooden elongated object resembling a shaft: a branch; stick; the shtruncustree trunk; a piece cut off; blockhead, dunce, doltsapīnusa kind of fir-sappīnusA type of fir.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
shaft
Something rising upward; hence, e.g., the spire of a steeple, fastigium turris.
The shaft of an arrow, etc., hastile (opposed to spiculum; i. e., the iron point): of a gun, *lignum (litterally, the wood): of a tree, truncus; sapinus or sappinus (of the fir-tree).
Of a column, scapus.
The handle of an instrument [Vid: HANDLE.]
The pole of a carriage, perhaps brachium, or, as we may say, temo bifurcus (the temo was PROP. a single pole).
A narrow perpendicular pit, (from the context) puteus or specus: fodina (a pit in general).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for shaft?
- The usual Latin words for “shaft” are scāpus, bracchium, puteus; also specus, fodīna, hastīle. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.