vexillum

See also: Vexillum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vēxillum (“flag, banner”).

Noun

vexillum (plural vexilla)

  1. A flag, banner, or standard.
  2. A company of troops serving under one standard.
  3. The sign of the cross.
  4. (botany) The upper petal of a papilionaceous flower.
  5. (ornithology) The rhachis and web of a feather taken together.
    Synonym: vane

Translations
sign of the cross — see sign of the cross
vane — see vane

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “vexillum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Alternative forms
  • vixillum (Vulgar or Late Latin, Pompeian inscriptions)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *wekslolom, synchronically a diminutive form of vēlum.

Pronunciation
  • (Classical) IPA(key): /u̯eːkˈsil.lum/, [u̯eːkˈs̠ɪlːʲʊ̃ˑ]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /vekˈsil.lum/, [veɡˈzilːum]
  • Note: dictionaries disagree over the length of the root vowel, but there's good evidence that it was long.[1]

Noun

vēxillum n (genitive vēxillī); second declension

  1. flag, banner
    • 6th century, Venantius Fortunatus, Vexilla regis, first stanza:
      Vexilla regis prodeunt
      Fulget crucis mysterium
      Quo carne carnis conditor,
      Suspensus est patibulo.
      The Banners of the King issue forth,
      the mystery of the Cross does gleam,
      where the Creator of flesh, in the flesh,
      from the cross-bar is hung.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative vēxillum vēxilla
Genitive vēxillī vēxillōrum
Dative vēxillō vēxillīs
Accusative vēxillum vēxilla
Ablative vēxillō vēxillīs
Vocative vēxillum vēxilla

Descendants
  • Friulian: vessil
  • Italian: vessillo
  • → Catalan: vexil·la
  • → German: Vexillum
  • → English: vexillum, vexillo-
  • → Galician: vexilo
  • → Portuguese: vexilo

References
  • “vexillum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “vexillum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • vexillum 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)
  • vexillum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to fix the ensign on the general's tent (as a signal to commence the engagement): vexillum proponere (Liv. 22. 3)
  • “vexillum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “vexillum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
  1. http://www.alatius.com/latin/bennetthidden.html
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