cuneus

Borrowed from Latin cuneus. Doublet of coin.

cuneus (plural cunei)

1. (anatomy) A portion of the occipital lobe of the human brain, involved in visual processing.
2. (architecture) One of a set of wedge-shaped divisions separated by stairways, found in the Ancient Roman theatre and in mediaeval architecture.

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱū (“sting”) (which also gave culex (“mosquito”)), extended from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) (compare catus (“sharp”), acutus (“sharp”), cos (“whetstone”), Ancient Greek κῶνος (kônos, “cone”))

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈku.ne.us/, [ˈkʊ.ne.ʊs]

cuneus m (genitive cuneī); second declension

1. wedge, wedge shape

Second declension.

• cuneifōrmis
• cuneō
• cuneātim

• Eastern Romance:
  • Aromanian: cunj, cunjiu
  • Romanian: cui
• Italian: conio
• Old French: coin, coigne
  • French: coin
  • → Irish: cúinne
  • → Middle English: coyn, coign, coigne, coyne, coygne, kuyne, koyne, coin, cune, quyne
    • English: coin, quoin, coign
      • → Japanese: コイン (koin)
    • Scots: cuinyie, cunzie
  • → Scottish Gaelic: cùinn
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: cuny
  • Occitan: cunh, conh
• Old Portuguese:
  • Portuguese: cunho
• Old Spanish:
  • Spanish: cuño
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Ladin: cogn
• Venetian: cogn
• → Albanian: kunj
• → English: cuneus
• → Italian: cuneo
• → Portuguese: cúneo
• → Welsh: cŷn
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *cunea
  • Old Portuguese: cunna, cuna
    • Portuguese: cunha
  • Old Spanish:
    • Spanish: cuña

• cunīculus
• cunnus
• cōnus

• cuneus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cuneus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cuneus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• cuneus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to draw up troops in a wedge-formation: cuneum facere (Liv. 22. 47)
    
• cuneus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cuneus in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• cuneus in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin