lituusn.
/ˈlɪtjuːəs/ 1. Roman History.
a. The crooked staff borne by an augur; an augural wand.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > augury, divination from omens > [noun] > augur, diviner from omens > staff borne by
lituus1611
1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 159 They..dyd finde..Romulus augures crooked staffe... This staffe is crooked at one of the endes, and they call it Lituus.]
1611 ‘G. Vadianus’ in T. Coryate Crudities sig. l1 v, (note) The Augures lituus or bended staffe.
1801 A. Ranken Hist. France I. i. ii. 234 The lituus of the Roman augurs became the crosier, or bishop's staff.
b. A curved trumpet, a clarion.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > wind instrument > brass instruments > [noun] > trumpet > types of
lilting-hornc1384
claranerc1410
clarinec1440
trumpet1440
sordine1591
sordine trumpet1616
clarion1621
alchemy1667
sourdinea1678
jubil-trumpet1715
lituus1776
sea-trumpet1776
penny trumpet1783
salpinx1865
principal1876
valve trumpet1877
tuba1882
kakaki1932
zugtrompete1978
vuvuzela2003
1776 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music I. 518 A double Lituus. The Lituus was a crooked military instrument, in the form of the augural staff, whence it had its name. It was a species of Clarion, or octave Trumpet.
1851 D. Wilson Archæol. & Prehistoric Ann. Scotl. ii. iii. 240 A lituus, or musical wind-instrument, found..in 1768.
2. Mathematics. (See quot. 1839.)
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a1716 R. Cotes Harmonia Mensurarum (1722) 85 Hujus generis alteram hic adjungam Spiralem, quam Litui Figuram appello propter formæ similitudinem.]
1758 I. Lyons Treat. Fluxions iv. §119 If BF is inversely as the square of SP, the curve is called by Mr. Cotes the Lituus.
1839 Penny Cycl. XIV. 58 Lituus, a name given to a spiral thus described:—Let a variable circular sector always have its centre at one fixed point, and one of its terminal radii in a given direction. Let the area of the sector always remain the same; then the extremity of the other terminal radius describes the lituus. The polar equation of this spiral is r2θ = a.
3. Zoology. A genus of cephalopods, now called Spirula; a shell of the genus.
ΚΠ
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. The lituus is always a conic shell, running in a strait line from the mouth, through a great part of the length, and from the end of this strait part to the extremity, twisting into the shape of a cornu ammonis.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) Lituites, a name given to the stones formed in the lituus-shell.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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