saxum

== English == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈsæksəm/ === Noun === saxum (plural saxa) (astronomy) a boulder, in geographic names on asteroids == Latin == === Etymology === From Proto-Italic *saksom, further derivation uncertain. The American Heritage Dictionary tentiatively connects it to Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”) (compare Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“knife”)), with a semantic shift from "broken-off piece" to "rock". De Vaan rejects this due to the presence of the vowel a in the Latin word, reasoning that to obtain that vowel in that position, a laryngeal must be posited (that is, the root would have to be **sh₂k-) and that a semantic connection between "rock" and "knife" (as seen in Germanic) is difficult. === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈsak.sũː] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈsak.sum] === Noun === saxum n (genitive saxī); second declension stone, rock (a large, rough fragment of rock) Synonyms: lapis, silex, petra Aaron Stone, season 1 episode 16: (by extension) wall of stone ==== Declension ==== Second-declension noun (neuter). ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== === References === “saxum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “saxum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers "saxum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887) “saxum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎[1], London: Macmillan and Co. “saxum”, in Samuel Ball Platner (1929), Thomas Ashby, editor, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press