cauda

See also: cåuda

English

Noun

cauda (plural caudae)

1. (anatomy) Ellipsis of cauda equina.
2. (palaeography) A diacritical mark with various forms, attached to the e of the e caudata used to indicate an abbreviation of ae or sometimes of oe, sometimes used on another letter when the e is omitted.

   Synonym: cedilla

   • 2010, Sinéad O'Sullivan, “The Oldest Gloss Tradition on Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii”, in Glossae aeui Carolini in libros I-II De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, Brepols, page l:

     The cauda of the e-caudata is extended. Ligatures of -st, -rt, -et and -nt are used.

   • 2012, Daniel Bunčić, “The standardization of Polish orthography in the 16th century”, in Susan Baddeley, Anja Voeste, director, Orthographiesin Early Modern Europe, De Gruyter Mouton, page 236:

     Later, around the turn of the 18th century, when Polish antiqua prints had become more usual, the cauda ‘tail’ of <ę> was placed under the back nasal, too, which resulted in modern <ą>.

   • 2020, Teresa de Robertis, “Humanistic script: Italy”, in Frank T. Coulson, Robert G. Babcock, director, The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography, Oxford University Press, page 522:

     The imitation is produced by systematic use of letters that because of their morphology and their position in the word are identified as “ancient” [...] : the conjunction handled via the ampersand (&) in place of the tironian et; tall s not only internally to the word but also at the end; d with a straight ascender instead of the Uncial variant with oblique ascender; straight r after a curve in place of the so-called round r; g formed of two circular sections connected to one another by a short vertical stroke; e with a cedilla or cauda (ę) and sometimes the nexus æ to indicate the diphthong; majuscules with origin in capitalis in the text.

   • 2025, Julia Crick, “The Form and Shape of the Manuscript”, in Stephen Baxter, Julia Crick, C. P. Lewis, director, Making Domesday: Intelligent Power in Conquered England, page 143:

     e-caudata is employed for h[a]ec and qu[a]e and the cauda has the open wishbone or hook form, used also by Beta and Sigma.

See also

• bagna cauda
• cauda galli

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin cauda, either directly (with preservation of /au̯/) or, more likely, via Vulgar Latin cōda (the source of all other Romance forms), with /'oː/ > /au̯/; cf. Latin nōmen > Dalmatian naum.

Noun

cauda f

1. tail

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kaudā (“tail”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂u-d-eh₂ (“cleaved, separate”), from *keh₂w- (“to strike”). Compare cūdō (“to beat, hammer”), caudex (“tree trunk, stump”), Lithuanian kuodas (“tuft”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkau̯.da]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaːu̯.da]

Noun

cauda f (genitive caudae); first declension

1. tail (animal appendage)

   Alternative form: cōda

   Synonym: pēnis (archaic)

   Antonym: caput

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cauda	caudae
genitive	caudae	caudārum
dative	caudae	caudīs
accusative	caudam	caudās
ablative	caudā	caudīs
vocative	cauda	caudae

Derived terms

• cauda illa
• caudālis (“having a tail; caudal”)
• caudam trahere
• caudātus (“tailed, caudate; lengthened, extended, elongated”) (Medieval Latin)
• caudiformis
• caudula

Descendants

• Vulgar Latin: cōda (see there for further descendants)
• >? Dalmatian: cauda (note: by regular sound changes, maybe also from Vulgar Latin cōda)
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: cauda
• Portuguese: cauda
• → Spanish: cauda
• → Romanian: coadă

Further reading

• “cauda”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cauda”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "cauda", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “cauda”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

cauda

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese, borrowed from Latin cauda. Doublet of cola, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkaw.dɐ/ [ˈkaʊ̯.dɐ]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkaw.dɐ/ [ˈkaw.ðɐ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkaw.dɐ/ [ˈkaw.ðɐ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkaw.dɐ/

• Audio (Brazil (Caipira)):

  (file)

• Homophone: calda (Brazil)
• Rhymes: -awdɐ
• Hyphenation: cau‧da

Noun

cauda f (plural caudas)

1. tail (posterior appendage or feathers of some animals)

   Synonyms: (archaic) coda, rabo

2. tail; tail end (posterior part or appendage of an object)
   1. (clothing) the part of a dress that is dragged on the floor
   2. (aviation) tail; empennage (rear structure of an aircraft)

   Synonym: empenagem

   1. (astronomy) tail (stream of dust as gases blown from a comet)
   2. (typography, informal) tail; descender (stroke below the baseline of a letter)
3. (figurative) consequences

Related terms

• caudal
• coda
• cola

Further reading

• “cauda”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “cauda” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
• “cauda”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cauda. Doublet of cola, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkauda/ [ˈkau̯.ð̞a]
• Rhymes: -auda
• Syllabification: cau‧da

Noun

cauda f (plural caudas)

1. tail (of a garment)

Further reading

• “cauda”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025