Cornelius

English

Etymology

From Latin Cornēlius.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɔɹˈniliəs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɔːˈniːlɪəs/
• Hyphenation: Cor‧ne‧lius

Proper noun

Cornelius

1. A male given name from Latin.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 10:1-2:

     There was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.

   • 2014, Joyce Carol Oates, Carthage, Fourth Estate, →ISBN, page 213:

     The intern will not call me 'Cornelius―(in fact, that dowdy old name isn't my actual name nor, at the present time, my nom de guerre)―but 'Dr. Hinton*―or 'sir'―will do.

Usage notes

• Name of early Christian saints with a medieval cult in the Low Countries. The name has remained rather rare in English.
• Cornelius has been used as an anglicization of Conchobhar in Ireland.

Related terms

• feminine form: Cornelia

Translations

male given name

• Coptic: ⲕⲟⲣⲛⲏⲗⲓⲟⲥ (kornēlios)
• Dutch: Cornelis (nl)
• Esperanto: Kornelio
• Galician: Cornelio (gl)
• Hungarian: Kornél (hu), Soma (hu)
• Italian: Cornelio (it) m
• Latin: Cornelius (la) m
• Norwegian: Kornelius
• Polish: Korneliusz (pl) m, Kornel (pl) m
• Portuguese: Cornélio m
• Romanian: Corneliu, Cornel
• Spanish: Cornelio (es)
• Vietnamese: Côrnêliô

Anagrams

• inclosure, reclusion, suriclone

Latin

Etymology

Possibly related to cornū (“horn”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /korˈneː.li.us/, [kɔrˈneːlʲiʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /korˈne.li.us/, [korˈnɛːlius]

Proper noun

Cornēlius m (genitive Cornēliī or Cornēlī, feminine Cornēlia); second declension

1. An old Roman gens name.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	Cornēlius	Cornēliī
Genitive	Cornēliī Cornēlī1	Cornēliōrum
Dative	Cornēliō	Cornēliīs
Accusative	Cornēlium	Cornēliōs
Ablative	Cornēliō	Cornēliīs
Vocative	Cornēlī	Cornēliī

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• Cornēlĭānus

Related terms

• Cornēlia

Descendants

• Catalan: Corneli
• French: Corneille
• Italian: Cornelio
• Portuguese: Cornélio
• Romanian: Corneliu
• Spanish: Cornelio

References

• “Cornelius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Cornelius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.