Crossword clues for caduceus
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Caduceus \Ca*du"ce*us\, n. [L. caduceum, caduceus; akin to Gr. ? a herald's wand, fr. ? herald.] (Myth.) The official staff or wand of Hermes or Mercury, the messenger of the gods. It was originally said to be a herald's staff of olive wood, but was afterwards fabled to have two serpents coiled about it, and two wings at the top.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, from Latin caduceus, alteration of Doric Greek karykeion "herald's staff," from karyx (genitive karykos) "a herald," from PIE *karu-, from root *kar- "to praise loudly, extol" (cognates: Sanskrit carkarti "mentions with praise," Old English hreð "fame, glory"). Token of a peaceful embassy; originally an olive branch. Especially the wand carried by Mercury, messenger of the gods, usually represented with two serpents twined round it.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The official wand carried by a herald in ancient Greece and Rome, specifically the one carried in mythology by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, usually represented with two snakes twined around it. 2 A symbol ((lang und sc=Latinx ☤)) representing a staff with two snakes wrapped around it, used to indicate merchants and messengers, and also sometimes as a symbol of medicine.
WordNet
n. an insignia used by the medical profession; modeled after the staff of Hermes
[also: caducei (pl)]
Wikipedia
The caduceus (☤; or ; from Greek "herald's staff") is the staff carried by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology and Hermes in Greek mythology. The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was often depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves.
Some accounts suggest that the oldest known imagery of the caduceus have their roots in a Mesopotamian origin with the Sumerian god Ningishzida whose symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.
As a symbolic object, it represents Hermes (or the Roman Mercury), and by extension trades, occupations, or undertakings associated with the god. In later Antiquity, the caduceus provided the basis for the astrological symbol representing the planet Mercury. Thus, through its use in astrology and alchemy, it has come to denote the elemental metal of the same name. It is said the wand would wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep. If applied to the dying, their death was gentle; if applied to the dead, they returned to life.
By extension of its association with Mercury and Hermes, the caduceus is also a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals. This association is ancient, and consistent from the Classical period to modern times. The caduceus is also used as a symbol representing printing, again by extension of the attributes of Mercury (in this case associated with writing and eloquence).
The caduceus is often used, particularly in North America, as a symbol of healthcare organizations and medical practice, due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and is never depicted with wings.
CADUCEUS was a medical expert system finished in the mid-1980s (first begun in the 1970s- it took a long time to build the knowledge base) by Harry Pople (of the University of Pittsburgh), building on Pople's years of interviews with Dr. Jack Meyers, one of the top internal medicine diagnosticians and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Their motivation was an intent to improve on MYCIN - which focused on blood-borne infectious bacteria - to focus on more comprehensive issues than a narrow field like blood poisoning (though it would do it in a similar manner); instead embracing all internal medicine. CADUCEUS eventually could diagnose up to 1000 different diseases.
While CADUCEUS worked using an inference engine similar to MYCIN's, it made a number of changes (like incorporating abductive reasoning) to deal with the additional complexity of internal disease- there can be a number of simultaneous diseases, and data is generally flawed and scarce.
CADUCEUS has been described as the "most knowledge-intensive expert system in existence".
Caduceus was a convict ship that transported a single convict from Bombay, India to Fremantle, Western Australia in 1858. It arrived in Fremantle on 5 February 1858. The convict, Patrick Devlin, was a 31-year-old soldier who had been convicted of a breach of articles of war by court-martial in Hyderabad State in December 1855, and sentenced to 14 years transportation. In addition to Devlin, there were three other passengers on board.
The term "Caduceus" is part of the title of several articles:
- Caduceus the ancient symbol of messengers, often confused with the medical symbol the Rod of Asclepius
- Caduceus as a symbol of medicine
- CADUCEUS (expert system) the medical expert system
- Caduceus (horse) The New Zealand racehorse and trotting champion
- Caduceus (ship) The 19th century convict ship
- Caduceus (The Matrix) One of the hovercraft ships in the fictional universe of the Matrix series
- Caduceus Cellars The winery
- NASA's name for a hypothetical moon of Mercury in a 2012 April Fool's Day joke
- Super Surgical Operation: Caduceus a video game (called Trauma Center: Under the Knife in the American edition) for the Nintendo DS
Caduceus was a New Zealand bred Standardbred racehorse. Caduceus is notable for winning the 1960 Inter Dominion Trotting Championship, trotting's premiership event in Australia and New Zealand, from a handicap of 36 yards, in front of a world record crowd. Prior to this in New Zealand, he had won major events including the New Zealand Free For All sprint race on three occasions plus the Auckland Trotting Cup.
In 1960, he went to the United States, the first to prove he could match the very top US horses. He ended up winning more than £100,000, with gallopers Tulloch and Sailor's Guide as the only horses bred in Australia or New Zealand to have achieved this distinction at that time.
He was an inaugural inductee into the New Zealand Trotting Hall of Fame with the immortals Cardigan Bay, Harold Logan, Highland Fling, Johnny Globe and Ordeal.
Usage examples of "caduceus".
Too much like that big-arena stuff Mobius Caduceus did up in the orbital habitat.
Jhana Meniskos announced that it was a performance by Onoma Verite, the latest discovery by Lev Korchnoi and the Mobius Caduceus music collective.
There were dozens of them, each button smaller than a dime, with a tiny shank on the back, a raised emblem of a caduceus on the front.
Latent had pulled fifty million smudged partials from the caduceus buttons.
I THOUGHT ABOUT the sick mind that had to be behind those caduceus buttons as I drove home that night.
I started running toward the stairs, wondering how many patients had died in this hospital, how many had been found with caduceus buttons on their dead eyes.
When I turned away, I saw a pair of caduceus buttons winking at me from the console beside the bed.
CEO, had stated repeatedly that the mortality rate at Municipal was within range for similar hospitals, and that the caduceus buttons were a joke.
Then he showed me a small plastic box half-filled with caduceus buttons.
The caduceus, serpents around a winged staff, symbol of the medical profession.
The caduceus of Hermes, which was given him by Apollo in exchange for the lyre, was a magic wand which exercised influence over the living and the dead, bestowed wealth and prosperity and turned everything it touched into gold.
In historical times the caduceus was the attribute of Hermes as the god of commerce and peace, and among the Greeks it was the distinctive mark of heralds and ambassadors, whose persons it rendered inviolable.
At this moment Mercury unfortunately approached his caduceus a little too close to the sinister object on the floor.
Mercury had laid aside his caduceus, and Neptune had slipped his trident under the table.
The restoration work was beautiful, down to the neon-illuminated caduceus above the front door.