fastigium

English

Etymology

From Latin fastigium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fæsˈtɪd͡ʒ.i.əm/

Noun

fastigium (plural fastigia)

1. An apex or summit; culmination.
2. (architecture) A pediment or gable end.
3. (pathology) The most intense phase of a disease, especially a fever.
   • 1871, C[arl Reinhold] A[ugust] Wunderlich, “Fundamental Principles”, in W. Bathurst Woodman, transl., On the Temperature in Diseases: A Manual of Medical Thermometry. [...] Translated from the Second German Edition (New Sydenham Society Publications; XLIX), London: The New Sydenham Society, →OCLC, § 32, page 14:

     [W]e find that the duration and succession of the febrile phenomena constitute five principal groups. […] 2. Fevers which are essentially continuous in their course (continued fevers), which exhibit but slight daily differences of temperature during their fastigium or acme, and defervesce rapidly (by crisis).

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *farstjagjom, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérstis, from *bʰers- (“tip”). Compare Middle Irish brostaim (“I goad, spur”), English bristle, Polish barszcz (“hogweed”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /fasˈtiː.ɡi.um/, [fäs̠ˈt̪iːɡiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /fasˈti.d͡ʒi.um/, [fäsˈt̪iːd͡ʒium]

Noun

fastīgium n (genitive fastīgiī or fastīgī); second declension

1. peak, summit, top

   Synonyms: cacūmen, vertex, apex, culmen, summitās

   Antonym: fundus

2. extreme part, extremity of a thing

   Synonym: extrēmitās

3. slope, declivity, descent
4. gable
5. sharp point
6. highlight (of a story or poem)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	fastīgium	fastīgia
genitive	fastīgiī fastīgī1	fastīgiōrum
dative	fastīgiō	fastīgiīs
accusative	fastīgium	fastīgia
ablative	fastīgiō	fastīgiīs
vocative	fastīgium	fastīgia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Related terms

• fastīgō

Descendants

• French: faîte (partially)
• Italian: fastigio
• Spanish: hastial
• → Portuguese: fastígio
• Sicilian: fastigiu
• → Spanish: fastigio

References

• “fastigium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fastigium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fastigium 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)
• fastigium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “fastigium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “fastigium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin