dux

See also: dúx

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dux (“leader”). Doublet of duke and doge.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʌks/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Homophone: ducks

Noun

dux (plural duxes or duces)

1. (UK, Australia, New Zealand) The top (male or female) academic student in a school, or in a year of school; the top student in a specified academic discipline.
   • 1849, Wilhelm Steven, The History of the High School of Edinburgh, page 191,

     […] on the motion of Sir John Marjoribanks, Bart., Lord Provost, unanimously resolved, July 27, 1814, “that there be annually presented by the town of Edinburgh to the boy at the head of the Greek class, taught by the rector of the High School, a gold medal of the same value [five guineas] as that annually presented to the dux of the Latin class.”

   • 1999, Keith Scott, Gareth Evans, page 29,

     He finished the year dux of Form III with an average 90 per cent over eight subjects. The school did not award end-of-year marks in fourth and fifth forms, but Evans′ report for those years shows he passed all subjects in both years and was again dux in Form V.

   • 2010, Roger K. A. Allen, Ballina Boy, page 28,

     This school was where my father had been dux in his senior year in 1937 just as his father had been dux at the Rockhampton Grammar School²⁷ before the turn of the 19th century.

   • 2011, A. Lydiard, Running to the Top, page 17,

     Quite a few who became national athletic champions were also duxes or top academic pupils at their schools.

2. (historical) A high-ranking commander in the Roman army, responsible for more than one legion.
3. (music) The subject of a fugue, answered by the comes.

Synonyms

• (top student): valedictorian

Related terms

• duke
• doge

Anagrams

• UXD

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *duks, from Proto-Indo-European *déwk-s, root nomen agentis from *dewk- (“to lead”), whence dūcō (“I lead”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /duks/, [d̪ʊks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /duks/, [d̪uks]

Noun

dux m or f (genitive ducis); third declension

1. leader, head
2. commander, general, captain
3. prince, ruler
4. guide, cicerone, conductor
5. (Medieval Latin) duke

   Coordinate term: ducissa

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	dux	ducēs
Genitive	ducis	ducum
Dative	ducī	ducibus
Accusative	ducem	ducēs
Ablative	duce	ducibus
Vocative	dux	ducēs

Usage notes

During the Roman Republic, Template:W could refer to anyone who commanded troops including foreign leaders but was not a formal military rank. In writing his commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar uses the term only for Celtic generals, with one exception for a Roman commander who held no official rank.

Derived terms

• archidux (Medieval)
• condux (Medieval)
• ducātus
• ēducō
• trādux

Related terms

• archiducātus
• dūcō

Descendants

• → Ancient Greek: δούξ (doúx, “leader”), δούκα (doúka, acc.sg.)
  • Byzantine Greek: δούξ (doúx), δούκα (doúka, acc.sg.)
    • Greek: δούκας (doúkas, “duke”)
    • → Italian: duca
      • → Romanian: ducă
        • ⇒? Romanian: duce
    • → Sicilian: duca
  • → Old Armenian: դուքս (dukʻs)
    • Armenian: դուքս (dukʻs)
• → English: dux
• Friulian: dûs
• Italian: duce
  • → Friulian: duche
• Ligurian: dûxe, Dûxe
• → Old French: duc (“duke”)
  • → Middle English: duke
    • English: duke
    • → Irish: diúc
    • → Manx: duic
    • → Scottish Gaelic: diùc
    • → Welsh: dug
    • → Cornish: duk
    • → Breton: duk
  • Middle French: duc
    • French: duc
      • → Arabic: دُوق (dūq)
      • → English: duc
      • → Persian: دوک (duk)
      • → Turkish: dük
  • Jere: duc (“duke”)
  • Norman: du
  • → Catalan: duc
  • → Portuguese: duque
  • → Spanish: duque
• → Occitan: duc
• → Spanish: dux
• Venetan: Doxe

References

• “dux”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dux”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dux 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)
• dux in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a demagogue, agitator: plebis dux, vulgi turbator, civis turbulentus, civis rerum novarum cupidus
    
  • (ambiguous) to be guided by ambition: gloria duci
    
  • (ambiguous) to cherish a hope: spe duci, niti, teneri
    
  • (ambiguous) to be misled by a vain hope: inani, falsa spe duci, induci
    
• “dux”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dux in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “dux”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), Bern, München: Francke Verlag

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Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dux. Doublet of duque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈduɡs/ [ˈd̪uɣ̞s]

Noun

dux m (plural dux)

1. doge (chief magistrate in the republics of Venice and Genoa)