cavus

Unadapted borrowing from Latin cavus (“a hollow, hole”). Doublet of cave and cavum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.vəs/
• Rhymes: -eɪvəs

cavus (plural cavi)

1. (geology) In planetary geology, it is used to refer to irregular steep-sided depressions that do not seem to be impact craters.

• pes cavus

• UCAVs

From Proto-Italic *kawos, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱowh₁ós (“hollow”), from the root *ḱewh₁- (“to swell”).

Related to Old Irish cúas (“hollow, cavity”), Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κῠ́ᾰρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “hole”), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “empty, barren, zero”), Etruscan 𐌂𐌀𐌅𐌄𐌈 (caveθ). Further related to Proto-Germanic *hūnaz (“outgrowth, swelling; block of wood; offspring”), whence English hune and hound (“projection on a masthead, foretop; bar”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.u̯us/, [ˈkäu̯ʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.vus/, [ˈkäːvus]

cavus (feminine cava, neuter cavum, comparative cavior); first/second-declension adjective

1. hollow, concave

   Synonym: plēnus

2. excavated, channeled
3. vain, empty

   Synonym: inānis

First/second-declension adjective.

cavus m (genitive cavī); second declension

1. Alternative form of cavum.

Second-declension noun.

• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 592
• “cavus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cavus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cavus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cavus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette