acus

1.

ăcus, ūs, f. [cf. 2. acer].

I.

A needle or pin, as being pointed, both for common use and ornament:“quasarcinatrix veletiam ornatrix utitur,” Paul. ex Fest. p. 9 Müll.

A.

Lit.:

mirabar vulnus, quod acu punctum videtur,

Cic. Mil. 24.—Hence, acu pingere, to embroider, Verg. A. 9, 582; Ov. M. 6, 23; cf. Plin. 8, 48, § 191; Isid. Orig. 19, 22, 22.—Esp. a hair-pin:

figat acus tortas sustineatque comas,

Mart. 14, 24:

foramen acūs,

the eye of a needle, Vulg. Matt. 19, 24.—Also, a surgeon's needle, a probe, Cels. 7, 17.—Hence,

B.

Trop.: acu rem tangere, to touch the thing with a needle; in Engl. phrase, to hit the nail on the head, Plaut. Rud. 5, 2, 19; so,

to denote careful and successful effort: si acum quaereres, acum invenisses,

id. Men. 2, 1, 13.—

II.

The tongue of a buckle, Treb. Poll. Claud. 14.—

III.

I. q. acus, ĕris, Col. 2, 10, 40.—

IV.

An implement of husbandry, Pall. 1, 43, 2.

2.

ăcus, ĕris, n. (also, ūs, f., v. 1. acus, III.) [kindred with acus, ūs, Goth. ahana, old Norse agn, old Germ. Agana ], = achuron, the husk of grain and of pulse; chaff, Cato, R. R. 54, 2; Varr. R. R. 1, 52; 57; 3, 9, 8.

3.

ăcus, i, m. [1. acus], a kind of sea-fish with a pointed snout, the hornpike or gar-pike (Gr. belonê):

acus sive belone unus piscium, etc.,

Plin. 9, 51, 76, § 166:

et satius tenues ducere credis acos,

Mart. 10, 37, 6; cf. Plin. 32, 11, 53, § 145, where belonae again occurs. (Some read una for unus in the passage from Plin., and acūs for acos in Mart., as if these forms belonged to 1. acus.)