uncia

== English == === Etymology === From Latin uncia (“various Roman units”). Doublet of ounce, inch, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah. === Pronunciation === (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈʌnʃi.ə/ === Noun === uncia (plural uncias or unciae) (historical) The Roman ounce, 1/12 of a Roman pound. [1685] (historical) The Roman inch, 1/12 of a Roman foot. (historical) A bronze coin minted by the Roman Republic, 1/12 of an as. (historical) A Roman unit of land area, 1/12 of a jugerum. (pharmacy) Synonym of ounce, the English and American avoirdupois unit of mass. Synonym of twelfth. (algebra, obsolete) A numerical coefficient in a binomial. == Latin == === Etymology 1 === Building upon Varro, most modern Latinists derive this word from ūnicus (“unique”) +‎ -ia, itself from ūnus (“one”) (from Proto-Indo-European *óynos) in the sense of twelfths making up the base unit of various ancient systems of measurement. Following Heron of Alexandria, Weiss instead postulates a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀγκία (onkía, “uncia”), from ὄγκος (ónkos, “weight”); he considers the loss of medial /i/ necessitated by the traditional etymology unproblematic but the derivation from "unique" semantically implausible. ==== Pronunciation ==== (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈuːŋ.ki.a], [ˈʊŋ.ki.a] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈun̠ʲ.t͡ʃi.a] It is uncertain whether long or short U occurred in ū̆ncia and in its compounds ending in -ū̆nx, -ū̆ncis. If a connection with ūnus is accepted, that word has long ū and Bennett (1907) thus marks long ū in ūncia, quīncūnx, quīncūncis. However, originally long vowels could be shortened in Latin before consonant clusters starting in resonant consonants such as [ŋ] (this shortening can be referred to as "Osthoff's Law", which is the name of a similar sound change that occurred in Greek). If Weiss' alternate etymology is accepted, there is no reason to posit a long vowel in this word; in any case, a Latin form ŭncia with a short vowel is represented by French once, Italian oncia, Spanish onza among others. ==== Noun ==== ū̆ncia f (genitive ū̆nciae); first declension (historical) uncia, a coin of the Roman Republic equal to 1/12 as (historical) inch, a length unit, equal to 1/12 of one foot (figurative) An insignificantly small length (historical) ounce, a mass unit equal to 1/12 of one pound (figurative) An insignificantly small amount (historical) uncia, an area unit equal to 1/12 of one jugerum twelfth, 1/12 of any amount or unit ===== Declension ===== First-declension noun. ===== Derived terms ===== terū̆ncius deū̆nx quincū̆nx septū̆nx ===== Descendants ===== Borrowings: === Etymology 2 === From Middle French once (“lynx, wild cat”) under influence from once (Latin uncia, “ounce”), from false division of Old French lonce (“lynx”) mistaking its initial l for the article l', from Vulgar Latin *luncea possibly via Italian lonza, from Latin lynx, from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”). First used in reference to the snow leopard by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1777 as Felis uncia. ==== Noun ==== uncia f (genitive unciae); first declension (New Latin) snow leopard ===== Declension ===== First-declension noun. ===== Descendants ===== Translingual: Uncia === References === === Further reading === “uncia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “uncia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers “uncia”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. “uncia”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers “uncia”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1977), “ունկի”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, volume III, Yerevan: University Press, page 603a