acus.
needle, pin; hair-pin; pipefish, needlefish; detail; husks/chaff (pl.); husks of grain/beans, chaff;
Meaning & usage
a needle, a pin
bodkin
alternative form of acus (“bran”)
Where this word comes from
The NIL suggests that the term was directly inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱus (“pointed”), from the root *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”). However, De Vaan argues that the noun acus was a later formation from the same root. Though, De Vaan does suggest that this same Proto-Indo-European u-stem is the source of acūpedius and acuō (“to sharpen, whet”).
bran, awn, chaff
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₂éḱos Proto-Italic *akos Latin acus From Proto-Italic *akos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éḱos (“tip, bristle; ear/blade of grain, awn, chaff”), from the root *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”). Doublet of agna (“ear”). Cognates with Proto-Germanic *ahaz (“ear”), Proto-Germanic *ahanō (“chaff”), Ancient Greek ἄχυρον (ákhuron, “hay”), Tocharian B āke (“tip, peak, end”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.