murcus

Latin

Etymology

Unknown. The Hesychius hapax Ancient Greek μύρκος (múrkos), μυρικᾶς (murikâs, “mute, dumb”), transmitted as being used in Syracuse, is deemed by Oikonomos, Ernout/Meillet and Beekes borrowed from Latin. Connection to murgisō (“shrewd shyster”), Old Armenian մրգուզ (mrguz, “vile, despicable”) seems promising, however the -cus part reoccurs in broccus (“having broken teeth”), mancus (“maimed, crippled”), caecus (“blind”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmʊr.kʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmur.kus]

Noun

murcus m (genitive murcī); second declension (very rare)

1. shortened, mutilated
   • 8–9th C. CE, Glossarium Amplonianum primum in Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum (volume V), Georg Goetz, Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Leipzig 1888, page 371, line 19:

     murcus curtus

2. (military) a coward, who, to escape military service, cuts off his thumb
   • 380 CE – 392 CE, Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 15.12.3:

     Nec eōrum aliquandō quisquam ut in Italiā mūnus Mārtium pertimēscēns pollicem sibi praecidit, quōs locāliter murcōs appellant.

     Neither are there among them any who, fearing military duty, cuts off, as in Italy, his thumb, which they regionally call murcī.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	murcus	murcī
genitive	murcī	murcōrum
dative	murcō	murcīs
accusative	murcum	murcōs
ablative	murcō	murcīs
vocative	murce	murcī

Derived terms

• murcidus (“languid”) (uncertain, also rare)
• Murcus (personal name) (uncertain)

References

• “murcus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “murcus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Ernout, Alfred; Meillet, Antoine (1985), “murcus”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 422b
• “murcus” in volume 8, column 1670, line 54 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present