sicilicus

From the Latin sicilicus, the diminutive form of sicilis (“sickle”), so named because of its falciformity.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sĭsĭʹlĭkəs, IPA^(key): /sɪˈsɪlɪkəs/

sicilicus (plural sicilici)

1. (Old Latin typography) A diacritic, resembling a 180°-rotated ‘C’ (i.e., being similar in appearance to ⟨ᵓ⟩), written atop a consonant to mark gemination, superseded in Classical Latin by doubling the letter representing the geminated consonant.
   • 1925, Sir John Edwin Sandys, A Companion to Latin Studies, 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 743:

     It is stated by grammarians that a sicilicus or laterally inverted Ⅽ, Ↄ, was placed above a consonant which was to be regarded as a doubled letter.

2. (Roman measurements) An unit of weight equal to one quarter of an uncia.
   • 1830, Journal of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, volume 1, page 182:

     Both the pounds were therefore divided alike into 15 ores, that is, ounces; the ores into 4 skyllings, the sicilici of the Romans, and the skyllings into 4 pence by the Saxons, while the Danes used the mark of 20 skyllings, and the skylling of 2 mancuses.

   • 1859, Sir William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, page 1213:

     UNCIA (ὀγκία, οὐγκία, οὐγγία), the twelfth part of the As or Libra, is derived by Varro from unus, as being the unit of the divisions of the as (L. L. v. 171, Müller). It was subdivided into 2 semunciae, 3 duellae, 4 sicilici, 6 sextulae, 24 scrupula, and 144 siliquae.

• (Roman measurement): siclus

• sicilicus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From sī̆cī̆lis (“sickle”) +‎ -icus. An alternative hypothesis supposes the name of the coin was borrowed from a source related to Greek σίκλος (síklos), Hebrew שֶׁקֶל (shékel, “shekel”), etc.,^[1] with the name of the unit then following.^[2]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [siːˈkiː.lɪ.kʊs], [siːˈkɪ.lɪ.kʊs]
• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [sɪˈkɪ.lɪ.kʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [siˈt͡ʃiː.li.kus]
• The vowel lengths are uncertain^[1] because the word is only attested late in poetry; it is scanned as sīcĭlĭc- in the anonymous poem De ponderibus et mensuris, sometimes ascribed to Remius Favinus (anthologia Latina 486). The scansion of the base word for "sickle" is also poorly attested and so uncertain: some reconstruct its pronunciation as sīcīlis (attested in Ennius, but with the sense "spearhead" rather than "sickle") and derive it from sīca (“dagger”) + -īlis, whereas others reconstruct its pronunciation as sĭcĭlis^[3] (supported by Romance evidence) and derive it from the verb secō (“cut”).

sī̆cī̆licus m (genitive sī̆cī̆licī); second declension

1. a sicilicus (a unit of weight equal to one quarter of an uncia, or 1/48 of an as)
2. (by extension) any other units that are 1/48 of another unit of measurement
   1. one forty-eighth of a jugerum
   2. the forty-eight part of an hour
   3. one forty-eighth of a foot (a quarter of an inch)
3. the name of a coin
4. (grammar) a comma
5. (grammar) a diacritic designating gemination of consonants, said to have been used by the ancients (antīquī) in Post-Augustan writers

Second-declension noun.

• sī̆cī̆licula
• sī̆cī̆limenta
• sī̆cī̆liō
• sī̆cī̆lis

• English: sicilicus

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