pilum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pilum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaɪləm/
• Rhymes: -aɪləm

Noun

pilum (plural pila or pilums)

1. (historical) A Roman military javelin.
   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin 2000, page 21:

     Besides a lighter spear, the Roman legionary grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin whose utmost length was about six feet and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of about eighteen inches.

   • 2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz 2011, page 371:

     Verica plucked a pilum from the hands of the nearest legionary – the soldier didn't react – and handed it to me.

2. (botany) The columella on the surface of a pollen grain.

Translations

Roman military javelin

• Russian: пилум (ru) m (pilum)
• Swedish: kastspjut (sv) n

References

• pilum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Noun

pilum m (plural pilums)

1. pilum

Further reading

• “pilum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

pīlum (throwing spear)

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *pistlom, from Proto-Indo-European *pistlom, from *peys- (“to crush”). See pistillum and pīla.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.lum/, [ˈpiːɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.lum/, [ˈpiːlum]

Noun

pīlum n (genitive pīlī); second declension

1. a pounder, pestle
2. a javelin, throwing spear

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pīlum	pīla
Genitive	pīlī	pīlōrum
Dative	pīlō	pīlīs
Accusative	pīlum	pīla
Ablative	pīlō	pīlīs
Vocative	pīlum	pīla

Related terms

• pīnsō

Descendants

• Dutch: pijl
• English: pile
• French: pile
• German: Pfeil
• Italian: pilo, pillo
• → Portuguese: pilo (learned)
• Romanian: pil
• Spanish: pilo
• Swedish: pil

Etymology 2

Noun

pilum

1. accusative singular of pilus (“hair”)

References

• “pilum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pilum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pilum 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)
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to throw down the javelins (pila) and fight with the sword: omissis pilis gladiis rem gerere
    
• “pilum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “pilum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin