calceus

English

A calceus from a 1st century Roman statue of an adolescent

Etymology

From Latin calceus, substantive use of calx (“heel”) + -eus (“-y: forming adjectives”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kælˈseɪəs/

Noun

calceus (plural calceuses or calcei)

1. A kind of low leather Roman boot or hightop shoe.
   • 1948, Ruth Turner Wilcox, The Mode in Footwear..., page 32:

     In its earliest form the calceus was a low-cut model of the Greek endromis, a snug-fitting ankle-high boot, the front finished in a tongue to facilitate drawing on the shoe.

   • 2022, Jan Radicke, Roman Women's Dress..., p. 99:

     In comparison with the soccus and the solea, the calceus was a more formal footwear. We do not not usually find it in scenes of private life... We never find it with banquets, where the soccus and the solea prevail. It was probably only put on when leaving the house or, in the case of men, when receiving guests in a formal manner.

Latin

A senatorial calceus (calceus senatorius) from Roman Spain

Alternative forms

• calcius

Etymology

A substantive use of calx (“heel”) +‎ -eus (“-y: forming adjectives”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkal.ke.us/, [ˈkäɫ̪keʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkal.t͡ʃe.us/, [ˈkäl̠ʲt͡ʃeus]

Noun

calceus m (genitive calceī); second declension

1. (historical) calceus, a kind of low Roman boot or leather hightop shoe
   • 1922, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Book 11, Cap. 3, §137:

     ...nam et toga et calceus et capillus tam nimia cura quam negligentia sunt reprehendenda...

     ...indeed your toga and calceus and hair are as worthy of reproach when done with excessive care as when done with too little...

2. (inexact) footwear, shoe, boot

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	calceus	calceī
genitive	calceī	calceōrum
dative	calceō	calceīs
accusative	calceum	calceōs
ablative	calceō	calceīs
vocative	calcee	calceī

Derived terms

• calcea
• calceāria
• calceō
• calceocaliga
• calceolus
• calceus mulleus
• calceus patricius
• calceus senatorius

 

Descendants

• ⇒ Italian: calcetto
• ⇒ Romanian: încălțăminte, călcâi
• ⇒ Venetan: calseto
• Sardinian: cartzu, cartu, caltzeta, caltzita, cartzita
• Borrowings:
  • → English: calceus, calced, calceiform
  • → Italian: calceo
  • → Spanish: cálceo

References

• “calceus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “calceus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• calceus 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)
• calceus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to change one's clothes (and shoes): vestimenta (et calceos) mutare
    
• “calceus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “calceus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎^[2], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN