aculeus

From Latin aculeus.

aculeus (plural aculei)

1. (botany) A sharp spike or other projection growing on a plant, as in some brambles and roses. [from 18th c.]
   • 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 15:

     Many plants, like many animals, are furnished with arms for their protection; these are either aculei, prickles, as in rose and barberry, which are formed from the outer bark of the plant; or spinæ, thorns […] .

2. A sting.

Derived from ac(us) (“needle”) +‎ -uleus (diminutive suffix).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aˈku.le.us/, [äˈkʊɫ̪eʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈku.le.us/, [äˈkuːleus]

aculeus m (genitive aculeī); second declension

1. sting, stinger (of an insect)
2. sting (metaphorical)
   • c. 195 BCE, Plautus, Trinummus 1000, (iambic senarius):

     iam dudum meum ille pectus pungit aculeus, / quid illi negoti fuerit ante aedis meas

     Already does this sting pierce my breast--what business he could have before my house?― The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912. Perseus

3. spine, thorn

Second-declension noun.

• aculeātus
• aculeolus
• *aculeō
  • Galician: aguillón
  • Portuguese: aguilhão
  • Spanish: aguijón

• → English: aculeus (learned)
• ⇒ Old French: aiglant
  • ⇒ French: églantier
• → Old Frisian: etsel, eetsel, eetzil, eitzel, eetzel, ethzel, ezel, ezil, itsil
  • West Frisian: isel, izel
• → Italian: aculeo
• → Portuguese: acúleo
• → Romanian: aculeu
• → Spanish: acúleo

• “ăcūlĕus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “aculeus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• aculeus 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)
• ăcŭlĕus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 26/3.
• “aculeus” on page 31/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)