arx

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂erk-. Cognates include Latin arca (“chest, box”), arceō (“I defend”), arcānus (“hidden, secret”), arcera (“kind of wagon”), Old Armenian արգել (argel, “obstacle”) and Ancient Greek ἀρκέω (arkéō).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /arks/

Noun

arx f (genitive arcis); third declension

1. citadel, stronghold, fortress
   • Vergil, Aeneid, 2.56:

     ... Troiaque, nunc stares, Priamique arx alta, maneres.

     ... and Troy, you would now be standing, and Priam's mighty citadel still endure.

2. height, summit, hilltop; the Capitoline hill
3. defense, refuge
4. (figuratively) bulwark

References

• arx in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• arx in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• arx in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• arx in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• arx in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• arx in Samuel Ball Platner (1929), Thomas Ashby, editor, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press
• arx in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin