gnixus

Uncertain. The term is mentioned by Festus as an archaic form of nīxus, the perfect participle of nītor, itself of uncertain etymology. De Vaan suggests that if the term nītor is indeed related to Latin cōnīveō, then the terms beginning with gn-, such as gnīxus, may reflect genuine archaic forms. If it is accepted that this term is truly an Old Latin participle, then the older form of nītor may have been *gnītor. However, the linguist Andrey Shatskov suggests that nītor is actually from a root *neyk- (“to approach energetically”) and the forms mentioned by Festus are intentionally archaizing terms formed by the analogy of Latin words such as nōscō and gnōscō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈniːk.sʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɲik.sus]

gnīxus (feminine gnīxa, neuter gnīxum); first/second-declension participle

1. (hapax legomenon) alternative form of nīxus
   • c. 2nd century, Sextus Pompeius Festus, De Verborum Significatione 96:

     Gnitus et gnixus a genibus prisci dixerunt

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

First/second-declension adjective.

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 410-411
• A. V. Shatskov (June 2019), “HITT. NININK- AND LAT. NĪTOR”, in Indo-European linguistics and classical philology, volume 23, Institute for Linguistic Studies,, →DOI
• “nitor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press