rex

From the Latin rēx (“king”), referring originally to rabbits of the Belgian "castorrex" breed, so named because their fur was similar to that of beavers. Entered English around 1920. Doublet of rajah and roy.

rex (plural rexes)

1. An animal which has a genetic recessive variation that causes the guard hairs to be very short or fully lacking.

• Rex

• Ex'r, Xer, xer-

• ℞

From Proto-Italic *rēks, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs (“king, ruler”). Cognates include Sanskrit राजन् (rā́jan, “king”) and Old Irish rí (“king”).

Iācōbus Rēx Scōtōrum (James [V], King of the Scots)

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /reːks/, [reːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /reks/, [rɛks]

rēx m (genitive rēgis, feminine rēgīna); third declension

1. king, ruler
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.544–545:

     “Rēx erat Aenēās nōbīs quō iūstior alter
     nec pietāte fuit nec bellō maior et armīs.”

     “We had a king, Aeneas: [None] other than he was more just, nor dutiful, nor [skillful] in war and with weaponry.”

   • Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, Danihelis 1:1:

     annō tertiō rēgnī Ioachim rēgis Iuda vēnit Nabuchodonosor rēx Babylōnis Hierūsalēm et obsēdit eam

     "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it."

2. (derogatory) despot, tyrant (during the time of the Republic when there were no kings and executive power was usually divided)
3. (Late Latin, chess) king

Third-declension noun.

• Rēcei is an early form of rēgī.

• rēgnum
• rēgulus
• rēgis fīlia, rēgis puella (“princess”)
• typographus Rēgis

• Dalmatian:
  • ra
• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: rè
  • Italian: re
    • → Maltese: re
  • Neapolitan: rré
  • Sicilian: re, reji
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: rà
    • Lombard: re
    • Piedmontese: rèj
  • Friulian: re
  • Ladin: re
  • Ligurian: re
  • Romansch: retg, raig, rai
  • Venetian: re
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: rê
  • Old French: roi, rex; rei; rai; roy
    • Middle French: roy
      • French: roi, roy (obsolete)
        • Antillean Creole: wa
        • Guianese Creole: rwè
        • Haitian Creole: wa
          • (perhaps) ⇒ Haitian Creole: lwa
            • → English: loa
        • Karipúna Creole French: hué
        • Louisiana Creole: rwa
        • Seychellois Creole: lerwa
    • Norman:

      Continental Normandy: rai, ré, rey

      Guernsey: ré, roué

      Jersey: rouai

      Sark: rwe

    • Walloon: roy, rwè
    • → Middle Breton: roe
      • Breton: roue
    • → Middle Cornish: ruy
      • Cornish: ruw
    • → Middle English: roy, roye
      • English: roy
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: rei, rey
    • Catalan: rei
  • Old Occitan: rei
    • Occitan: rei, rèi
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Navarro-Aragonese: rei, rey
    • Aragonese: rei
  • Old Leonese: rei, rey, re
    • Asturian: rei, reye
    • Leonese: rei
    • Mirandese: rei
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: rei
    • Fala: rei
    • Galician: rei
    • Portuguese: rei (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Spanish: rey
    • Ladino: rey
    • Spanish: rey
      • Chavacano: rey
      • Papiamentu: rey
      • → Interlingue: rey
      • → San Pedro Amuzgos Amuzgo: rey
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: re, rei

Borrowings:

• → Albanian: regj
• → Basque: errege
• → English: rex, Rex
• → Esperanto: reĝo
• → Greek: ρήγας (rígas)
  • → Albanian: rig
  • → Romanian: rigă
• → Ido: rejo
• → Interlingua: rege
• → Italian: rege
• → Novial: reg-
• → Romanian: rege
• →? Sicilian: reghi
• →⇒ Translingual: Balaeniceps rex, Tyrannosaurus rex
• → Volapük: reg

• “rex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “rex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• rex 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)
• rex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to establish some one as king, tyrant: aliquem regem, tyrannum constituere
    
  • to restore a king to his throne (not in solium): regem restituere
    
  • (ambiguous) to belong to the king's bodyguard: a latere regis esse
    
• “rex”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “rex”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

rex ?

1. side