# cuneus
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cuneus. Doublet of coign and coin.

### Pronunciation

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### Noun

cuneus (plural cunei)
* (neuroanatomy) A portion of the occipital lobe of the human brain, involved in visual processing.
* (entomology) A wedge-shaped section of the forewing of certain heteropteran bugs.
* (architecture) One of a set of wedge-shaped divisions separated by stairways, found in the Ancient Roman theatre and in mediaeval architecture.

#### Derived terms

* precuneus

#### Translations
## Latin
### Etymology

Uncertain root, apparently with the suffix -eus. Various problematic comparisons to either Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) or *ḱúH- (“spike; sting”) (compare Latin culex (“mosquito”), Avestan 𐬯𐬏𐬐𐬁 (sūkā, “needle”), Sanskrit शूक (śūka, “spike, bristle; sting (of an insect)”), शूल (śūla, “spear; stake”) etc.) have been unfruitful; a long vowel (*cūneus) would be expected in the latter case, and the morphology of the -n-eus suffix remains opaque. One possibility is that cuneus is a borrowing from Ancient Greek γώνιος (gṓnios, “corner, angle”) via an Etruscan intermediate which could explain the devoicing, though de Vaan finds this unconvincing. Compare cunnus (“vagina”, derogatory), also of uncertain origin, as well as cutis (“skin”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈku.ne.us/, [ˈkʊneʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈku.ne.us/, [ˈkuːneus]

### Noun

cuneus m (genitive cuneī); second declension
* wedge, wedge shape
* (military) troops arrayed in a wedge formation
* (military, figuratively) an army
* (theater) a block of seats

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* cuneifōrmis
* cuneō
* cuneolus
* cuneātim

#### Descendants

* Balkan Romance:
** Aromanian: cunj, cunjiu
** Romanian: cui
* Italo-Romance:
** Italian: conio, cogno, cugno, cugna
** Neapolitan: cogno
** Sicilian: cugnu
* Padanian:
** Emilian: cògn
** Ladin: cogn
** Friulian: cugn
** Ligurian: cun-gno, cun-ni, cuin
** Lombard: cugn, cugne, cuni ⇒ cugneul, chigneul, qignœl
    Ossolano: ciugn
** Piedmontese: cugn, cun-i, cuin-i
** Venetan: cogn
* Northern Gallo-Romance:
** Franco-Provençal: couen, cugno, cugne
** Old French: coin, coigne
*** French: coin
*** → Irish: cúinne
*** → Middle English: coyn, coign, coigne, coin, coygne, coyne, cune, koyne, kuyne, quyne
**** English: coin, quoin, coign
***** → Japanese: コイン (koin)
**** Scots: cuinyie, cunzie
*** → Scottish Gaelic: cùinn
* Southern Gallo-Romance:
** Catalan: cuny
** Occitan: cunh, conh, cuenh
* Ibero-Romance:
** Galician: cuño, cruño
** Portuguese: cunho
** Spanish: cuño
* ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *cunea
** Ibero-Romance:
*** Old Galician-Portuguese: cunna, cuna
**** Galician: cuña
**** Portuguese: cunha
*** Spanish: cuña
* Borrowings:
** → Albanian: kunj
** → English: cuneus
** → Italian: cuneo
** → Portuguese: cúneo
** → Proto-Brythonic: *kün
*** Middle Welsh: kyn
**** Welsh: cŷn

#### See also

* cunīculus
* cunnus
* cōnus

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cuneus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 154
* “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 with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 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