falx

English

Etymology

From Latin falx (“sickle”). Doublet of dalk.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /fælks/, /fɔlks/

Noun

falx (plural falxes or falces)

1. (historical) A short Dacian sword resembling a sickle.
2. Any sickle-shaped part or process.
   1. (anatomy) A curved fold or process of the dura mater or the peritoneum, especially one of the partition-like folds of the dura mater which extend into the great fissures of the brain.
   2. (anatomy, dated) A chelicera.
   3. (anatomy) A snake's poison fang.
   4. (anatomy) A rotula of a sea urchin.

Derived terms

• falcial
• falx cerebri

Anagrams

• Flax, flax

---

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *dʰelk-, *dʰelg- (“a cutting tool”). Cognate with Old Irish delg (“thorn, needle”), Old English dalc (“a pin, brooch, bracelet”). More at dalk.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /falks/, [fäɫ̪ks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /falks/, [fälks]

Noun

falx f (genitive falcis); third declension

1. sickle, scythe
2. (military) a hook used to pull down walls

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	falx	falcēs
Genitive	falcis	falcium
Dative	falcī	falcibus
Accusative	falcem	falcēs falcīs
Ablative	falce	falcibus
Vocative	falx	falcēs

Derived terms

• falcastrum

Descendants

• Aragonese: falz
• Aromanian: falcã, falche
• Asturian: foz, fouz, foiz
• Catalan: falç
• Emilian: fèlz
• → English: falx
• Fala: foici
• Friulian: fals

• Italian: falce
• Ladin: fauc
• Lombard: falc, folcc
• Mirandese: fouce
• Neapolitan: falcè
• Old French: fauz
  • French: faux
    • Karipúna Creole French: fos
  • Picard: feuque
  • Walloon: foque (obsolete)
• Old Occitan: fals
  • Occitan: falç, fauç, haus, fâ
• Old Galician-Portuguese: fouce
  • Galician: fouce
  • Portuguese: foice, fouce

• Romanian: falcă, falce
• Romansch: faulsch
• Sardinian: falche, falle, farche, farci, frache, fraci
• Sicilian: fauci
• Spanish: hoz
• Venetian: falẑ
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: falcicla
  • French: faucille
  • Norman: faûcil'ye (Jersey)
  • Piedmontese: faussìa
• >? Vulgar Latin: falcina
  • → Albanian: felqinë

References

• “falx”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “falx”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• falx 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)
• falx in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “falx”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “falx”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “falx”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume
  , page 404
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “falx”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 239