Claudius - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Wikispecies

Claudius

  1. A taxonomic genus within the family Kinosternidae – narrow-bridged musk turtle.

From Latin Claudius. Doublet of Claude.

Claudius (plural Claudiuses or Claudii)

  1. A male given name from Latin.
    • 1968, John W[illiam] Velz, Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition: A Critical Guide to Commentary, 1660-1960, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, →LCCN, page 315, column 2:
      King Claudius is the Emperor Claudius, who "committed incest with Agrippina, married her and adopted her son Nero." The two Claudiuses have several traits in common (drunkenness, violent temper, love of gambling, e.g.).
    • 2001, Rose Williams, Duces Romanorum: Profiles in Roman Courage, teacher’s edition, London: WPC Classics, →ISBN, page 94:
      Vespasian, a simple man, always laughed because so many Julii and Claudii were made divine after their deaths. On his deathbed he said, “Alas! I think I’m becoming a god.”
    • 2007, Steven Saylor, “Coriolanus (510–491 bc)”, in Roma: The Epic Novel of Ancient Rome, London: Constable, →ISBN, page 143:
      Busy accepting the good wishes of all the other guests, Titus was able to pay only passing attention to Gnaeus. He worried that his friend might feel a bit out of place amid so many Claudii and Potitii, or, given his sensitivities, might experience a bit of envy, perhaps even resentment, at seeing the trappings of the patrician wedding he himself would never experience.
  2. The Roman emperor "Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus".

Roman Emperor

Traditionally said to be from claudus (“lame, limping, crippled”), however, family history relates that the name was adopted as the Romanized form of an earlier Clausus, the Latin spelling of an original Sabine name. A Sabine word cognate with clausus (“shut, closed”), perfect passive participle of claudō (“I shut, close”) seems a more probable origin.

Claudius m (genitive Claudiī or Claudī, feminine Claudia); second declension

  1. A Roman gens name.

Second-declension noun.

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