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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

uncia.

twelfth part, twelfth; ounce; inch;

5 characters2 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈuːŋ.ki.a]Classical-Latin[ˈʊŋ.ki.a]Classical-Latin[ˈun̠ʲ.t͡ʃi.a]
  1. uncia, a coin of the Roman Republic equal to 1/12 as

    declension-1 · historical
  2. inch, a length unit, equal to 1/12 of one foot

    declension-1 · historical
  3. An insignificantly small length

    declension-1 · figuratively
  4. ounce, a mass unit equal to 1/12 of one pound

    declension-1 · historical
  5. An insignificantly small amount

    declension-1 · figuratively
  6. uncia, an area unit equal to 1/12 of one jugerum

    declension-1 · historical
  7. twelfth, 1/12 of any amount or unit

    declension-1
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos Proto-Italic *oinos Old Latin oinos Latin ūnus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icus Latin ūnicus Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin uncia Building upon Varro, most modern Latinists derive this word from ūnicus (“unique”) + -ia, itself from ūnus (“one”) (from Proto-Indo-European *óynos) in the sense of twelfths making up the base unit of various ancient systems of measurement. Following Heron of Alexandria, Weiss instead postulates a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀγκία (onkía, “uncia”), from ὄγκος (ónkos, “weight”); he considers the loss of medial /i/ necessitated by the traditional etymology unproblematic but the derivation from "unique" semantically implausible.

noun
  1. snow leopard

    New-Latin · declension-1 · feminine
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewk- Proto-Indo-European *lú(n)ḱs Proto-Hellenic *lúnks Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx)bor. Latin lynx Vulgar Latin *luncea? Italian lonzabor. Old French lonceder. Middle French onceder. Latin uncia From Middle French once (“lynx, wild cat”) under influence from once (Latin uncia, “ounce”), from false division of Old French lonce (“lynx”) mistaking its initial l for the article l', from Vulgar Latin *luncea possibly via Italian lonza, from Latin lynx, from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”). First used in reference to the snow leopard by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1777 as Felis uncia.

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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.