caesius

== Latin == === Etymology === Literally 'cutting, piercing', from caedō (“I cut”) === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈkae̯.si.ʊs] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈt͡ʃɛː.s̬i.us] === Adjective === caesius (feminine caesia, neuter caesium); first/second-declension adjective (of the eyes) blue, gray, occasionally green (of a person, sometimes derogatory) blue-eyed customary translation of γλαυκῶπις (glaukôpis); as well as denoting the associated eye color ==== Usage notes ==== One of the primary Latin terms used to describe eye color in prose, alongside niger, rāvus, glaucus, and caeruleus. With regard to Greek equivalences, it is noted in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae dictionary that the Roman equation of γλαυκῶπις (glaukôpis) with caesia does not extend to γλαυκός (glaukós), whose frontline gloss is observed to be caeruleus (“deep (blue)”). The color term caeruleus was originally not used for eyes, other than those of Neptune from Greek tradition. In the 1st century AD, the terms probably slightly evolved. The blue eyes of savage and menacing northern barbarians start being exaggeratedly described as caeruleī instead of caesiī in publicists' language (along with the stronger rutilus replacing rūfus about their hair, for impact). In addition, the already long-borrowed glaucus acquires, at least for a time, the sense of denoting the characteristic bright blue eyes of horses (considered to be only one color under this name), and is found describing the eyes of Augustus (Dīvō Augustō equōrum mōre glaucī [oculī] fuēre), who is in another source described as having caesiī eyes again. Elaborate prescientific Greek theories of color and vision abounded in the Roman Empire, and the use of color terminology was influenced in inobvious ways by these theories. ==== Declension ==== First/second-declension adjective. ==== Derived terms ==== caesitās caesitius ==== Descendants ==== English: caesious, caesium ==== See also ==== === References === “caesius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “caesius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers “caesius”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. “caesius”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray