spelunca

From Ancient Greek σπῆλυγξ (spêlunx).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /speːˈlun.ka/, [s̠peːˈɫ̪ʊŋkä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /speˈlun.ka/, [speˈluŋkä]

spēlunca f (genitive spēluncae); first declension

1. a cave, cavern, chasm
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.60–61:

     Sed pater omnipotēns spēluncīs abdidit ātrīs,
     hoc metuēns, [...].

     But the all-powerful Father [Jupiter] had hidden [the winds] in dark caverns, [because he was] fearing this [destruction], [...].

2. a grotto
3. a den

First-declension noun.

• specus

• “spelunca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “spelunca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• spelunca 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)
• spelunca in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “spelunca”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly