fascis

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- (“bundle, band”), see also Proto-Celtic *baskis (“bundle, load”), Ancient Greek φάκελος (phákelos, “bundle”), Albanian bashkë (“together”), Old English bæst (“inner bark of the linden tree”), Welsh baich (“load, burden”), Middle Irish basc (“neckband”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈfas.kis/, [ˈfäs̠kɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfaʃ.ʃis/, [ˈfäʃːis]

Noun

fascis m (genitive fascis); third declension

1. A faggot, fascine; bundle, packet, package, parcel.
2. A burden, load.
3. (usually in the plural) A bundle carried by lictors before the highest magistrates, consisting of rods and an axe, with which criminals were scourged and beheaded.
4. A high office, like the consulship.

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fascis	fascēs
Genitive	fascis	fascium
Dative	fascī	fascibus
Accusative	fascem	fascēs fascīs
Ablative	fasce	fascibus
Vocative	fascis	fascēs

Synonyms

• (bundle): sarcina
• (fascine): crātis
• (burden, load): sarcina

Derived terms

• fasciātim
• fasciculus
• fasciger
• fascīna

 

Related terms

• fascia

Descendants

• Aragonese: faxo
• Asturian: feixe, feix, fexe
• Catalan: feix
• English: (from various derivative terms) fascism, faggot, fagot
• French: faisser, faix
• Italian: fascio
• Old Galician-Portuguese: feixe
  • Portuguese: feixe
  • Galician: feixe
• Romanian: fascie
• Spanish: feje, haz, fajo

See also

• fascia

References

• “fascis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fascis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fascis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to walk before with the fasces; to lower the fasces: fasces praeferre, summittere