aculeatus

From aculeus (“sting, stinger”) +‎ -ātus (“-ed”, adjective-forming suffix).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /a.ku.leˈaː.tus/, [äkʊɫ̪eˈäːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /a.ku.leˈa.tus/, [äkuleˈäːt̪us]

aculeātus (feminine aculeāta, neuter aculeātum, superlative aculeātissimus); first/second-declension adjective

1. prickly
2. barbed
3. stinging, barbed (metaphorical)
   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 63, (trochaic septenarius):

     PISTOCLERUS: Quia istaec lepida sunt memoratui: / éadem in usu atque úbi periclum fácias, aculeáta sunt, / animum fodicant, bona distimulant, facta et famam sauciant.

     PISTOCLERUS: Because these things are pleasant in the talking of; but in the practice, and when you make trial, the same are armed with stings. They pierce the feelings, goad one's fortune, and wound one's merits and character.― Henry Thomas Riley, 1912, Perseus

4. subtle

First/second-declension adjective.

• → Italian: aculeato
• → Portuguese: aculeado
• Translingual: Aculeata

• “aculeatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “aculeatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• aculeatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.