Sicilicus

In Latin and English, 'sicilicus' usually intended the fourth of an ounce. See Roman units.
◌͗
Sicilicus
Diacritics in Latin & Greek
accent
acute( ´ )
double acute( ˝ )
grave( ` )
double grave(  ̏ )
breve( ˘ )
inverted breve(  ̑ )
caron, háček( ˇ )
cedilla( ¸ )
circumflex( ˆ )
diaeresis, umlaut( ¨ )
dot( · )
hook, hook above(   ̡   ̢  ̉ )
horn(  ̛ )
iota subscript(  ͅ  )
macron( ¯ )
ogonek, nosinė( ˛ )
perispomene(  ͂  )
ring( ˚, ˳ )
rough breathing( )
smooth breathing( ᾿ )
Marks sometimes used as diacritics
apostrophe( )
bar( ◌̸ )
colon( : )
comma( , )
hyphen( ˗ )
tilde( ~ )
Diacritical marks in other scripts
Arabic diacritics
Early Cyrillic diacritics
kamora(  ҄ )
pokrytie(  ҇ )
titlo(  ҃ )
Gurmukhī diacritics
Hebrew diacritics
Indic diacritics
anusvara( )
chandrabindu( )
nukta( )
virama( )
chandrakkala( )
IPA diacritics
Japanese diacritics
dakuten( )
handakuten( )
Khmer diacritics
Syriac diacritics
Thai diacritics
Related
Dotted circle
Punctuation marks
Logic symbols

A sicilicus was an old Latin diacritical mark,  ͗, like a reversed C (Ɔ)[1] placed above a letter and evidently deriving its name from its shape like a little sickle (which is sicilis in Latin). The ancient sources say[2] that during the time of the Republic it was placed above a geminate consonant to indicate that the consonant counted twice, although there is hardly any epigraphic and paleographic evidence available from such an early time. When such geminate consonants began to be represented during classical times by writing the letter twice, the sicilicus naturally fell into disuse in this function, but continued to be used to indicate the doubling of vowels as an indication of length in the developed form of the apex.[3] It has been suggested that Plautus alludes to the sicilicus in the prologue to Menaechmi.[4]

In Unicode, it is encoded as U+0357  ͗  COMBINING RIGHT HALF RING ABOVE (HTML ͗).

See also

References

Notes

  1. Cf. John Edwin Sandys, A Companion to Latin Studies, Cambridge University Press 1910, §1099, p. 743, where specific instances are provided: C.I.L. v 1361, x 3743, xii 414.
  2. Cf. Isidore Etymologiae 1.27.29 (ubi litterae consonantes geminabantur, sicilicum superponebant, ut 'cella', 'serra', 'asseres': ueteres enim non duplicabant litteras, sed supra sicilicos adponebant; qua nota admonebatur lector geminandam esse litteram); Nisus fr. 5 Mazzarino in Velius Longus de Orthographia Keil 7.80; Gaius Marius Victorinus Ars Grammatica 4.2 Mariotti.
  3. Apex and Sicilicus, Revilo P. Oliver, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 87, No. 2. (Apr., 1966), pp. 156-58. For a counter-view see Michael Fontaine, Sicilicissitat (Plautus, Menaechmi 12) and Early Geminate Writing in Latin (with an Appendix on Men. 13). Mnemosyne, Volume 59, Number 1 (2006) pp. 104-5.
  4. Michael Fontaine, Sicilicissitat (Plautus, Menaechmi 12) and Early Geminate Writing in Latin (with an Appendix on Men. 13). Mnemosyne, Volume 59, Number 1 (2006) pp. 95-110.
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