Lewis & Short

Parsing inflected forms may not always work as expected. If the following does not give the correct word, try Latin Words or Perseus.

1. caudex, ĭcis, m. (more recent orthography cōdex) [etym. dub.; cf. cauda].

  1. I. The trunk of a tree, the stock, stem (rare).
          1. (α) Caudex, Plin. 16, 30, 53, § 121; 12, 15, 34, § 67; Verg. G. 2, 30 et saep.
          2. (β) Codex, Ov. M. 12, 432; Col. 4, 8, 2; 5, 6, 21.
            Hence,
    1. B. The block of wood to which one was bound for punishment: codex, Plaut. Poen. 5, 3, 39; Prop. 4 (5), 7, 44; Juv. 2, 57.
    2. C. A term of reproach, block, dolt, blockhead: caudex, Ter. Heaut. 5, 1, 4; Petr. 74.
  2. II. Inpartic.
    1. A. A block of wood split or sawn into planks, leaves or tablets and fastened together: quia plurium tabularum contextus caudex apud antiquos vocatur, Sen. Brev. Vit. 13, 4: quod antiqui pluris tabulas conjunctas codices dicebant, Varr. ap. Non. p. 535, 20.
      Hence,
    2. B. (Since the ancients orig. wrote upon tablets of wood smeared with wax.) A book, a writing (its leaves were not, like the volumina, rolled within one another, but, like those of our books, lay over one another; cf. Dict. of Antiq.).
          1. (α) Caudex, Cato ap. Front. Ep. ad M. Ant. 1, 2.
          2. (β) Codex, Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 46, § 119; id. Clu. 33, 91; Quint. 10, 3, 28; Dig. 32, 1, 52 al.
    3. C. Esp. of an accountbook and particularly of a ledger (while adversaria signifies the waste-book; hence only the former was of any validity in law): non habere se hoc nomen (this item) in codice accepti et expensi relatum confitetur: sed in adversariis patere contendit, etc., Cic. Rosc. Com. 2, 5; v. the passage in connection; cf. id. ib. 3, 9: in codicis extremā cerā (i. e. upon the last tablet), id. Verr. 2, 1, 36. § 92: referre in codicem, id. Sull. 15, 44.
    4. D. A code of laws: Codex Theodosianus, Justinianus, etc.; cf. Dict. of Antiq. s. v.

cōdex, ĭcis, v. caudex.