unicus

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ís?

Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos

Proto-Italic *oinos

Old Latin oinos

Latin ūnus

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Indo-European *-ikos

Proto-Italic *-ikos

Latin -icus

Latin ūnicus

From ūnus (“one”) + -icus (“-ic”). Compare Proto-Germanic *ainagaz and its descendants.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈuː.nɪ.kʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈuː.ni.kus]
• Hyphenation: ū‧ni‧cus

Adjective

ūnicus (feminine ūnica, neuter ūnicum, adverb ūnicē); first/second-declension adjective

1. only, sole, single
   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 5.251–252:

     ‘quod petis, Ōleniīs’ inquam ‘mihi missus ab arvīs
     flōs dabit: est hortīs ūnicus ille meīs.’

     “What you seek,” I say, “a flower sent to me from the Olenian fields will provide: the only one [of its kind] is in my gardens.”
     (A touch of the flower described by Flōra causes conception.)

2. unique
3. uncommon

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	ūnicus	ūnica	ūnicum		ūnicī	ūnicae	ūnica
genitive	ūnicī	ūnicae	ūnicī		ūnicōrum	ūnicārum	ūnicōrum
dative	ūnicō	ūnicae	ūnicō		ūnicīs
accusative	ūnicum	ūnicam	ūnicum		ūnicōs	ūnicās	ūnica
ablative	ūnicō	ūnicā	ūnicō		ūnicīs
vocative	ūnice	ūnica	ūnicum		ūnicī	ūnicae	ūnica

Derived terms

• ūnicitās

Descendants

• → Catalan: únic
• → French: unique
  • → Danish: unik
  • → Dutch: uniek
  • → English: unique
  • → Norwegian: unik
  • → Romanian: unic
  • → Swedish: unik
• → Italian: unico
• → Middle Welsh: unic
• → Portuguese: único
• → Sicilian: ùnicu
• → Spanish: único

Further reading

• “ūnĭcus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ūnicus in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 3306
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “unicus”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎^[1], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC
• “ūnĭcus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1628, columns 2–3.
• Harm Pinkster, editor (2018), “ūnicus”, in Woordenboek Latijn/Nederlands‎^[2], 7th revised edition, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC
• Latino-Sinicum [translated as: 獨一／独一 (dúyī); 無二／无二 (wú'èr); 至愛之/至爱之 (zhì ài zhī); 至合式; 上等者], in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011
• “ūnicus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers