caecus

• coecus (misspelling)
• cēcus (in manuscripts)

From Proto-Italic *kaikos (“blind, eyeless”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ikos (“one-eyed”). Cognates include Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍃 (haihs), Old Irish cáech (“one-eyed”), caoch (“blind”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkae̯.kus/, [ˈkäe̯kʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃe.kus/, [ˈt͡ʃɛːkus]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

caecus (feminine caeca, neuter caecum); first/second-declension adjective

1. Having no light, devoid of light.
2. (active voice):
   1. (literally) Not seeing, blind.
   2. (figurative) Mentally or morally blind; blinded.
   3. (figurative) Blind, i.e. at random, vague, indiscriminate, aimless, meaningless, acting blindly
      • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.209-210:

        “[...] caecīque in nūbibus ignēs / terrificant animōs et inānia murmura miscent?”

        “And [why do] aimless fires in the clouds terrify [our] spirits, and [their] meaningless murmurs unsettle [us]?”
        (King Iarbas dares to question whether lightning and thunder truly signify Jupiter’s disapproval of human affairs.)

   4. (transferred sense, botany) Without buds or eyes.
3. (passive voice):
   1. (literally) That cannot be seen.
   2. (figurative) That cannot be known; invisible, concealed, hidden, secret, obscure, dark.
4. (neutral voice):
   1. (literally) That obstructs the sight; not transparent, opaque.
   2. (figurative) That obstructs the perception; dark, gloomy, thick, dense, obscure; uncertain, doubtful.

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• caecum (noun)
• caecutiō

• caecitās
• Caecilius

• “caecus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• caecus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • Fortune makes men shortsighted, infatuates them: fortuna caecos homines efficit, animos occaecat
    
  • (ambiguous) to have no principles: caeco impetu ferri