clavus.
callus, wart, tumor, excrescence; foul brood in bees; fungus disease in olives; nail, spike, rivet; purple stripe on tunic; tiller/helm, helm of ship of state;
Meaning & usage
a nail (metal spike)
rudder
helm (of a boat)
purple stripe on the tunic
callus, wart, tumor
Where this word comes from
From Proto-Italic *klāwos, from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂w-o-s, from *kleh₂u- (“nail, pin, hook - instruments, of old use for locking doors”). Cognate with Ancient Greek κλείς (kleís, “key”) and Old Church Slavonic ключь (ključĭ, “key”). Latin clāvis (“key”) is either a secondary i-stem derivation, or a loanword from Ancient Greek κληΐς (klēḯs).
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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.