Dictionary

codex en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• kōʹdĕks
• /ˈkəʊdɛks/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈkoʊdɛks/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōdex, variant form of caudex (“tree trunk, book, notebook”); compare caudex (in botany). Doublet of code.

Meanings

1. An early manuscript book, especially one bound in the modern manner, by joining pages, as opposed to a rolled scroll.
   • We're still learning about this cache of codexes, and one thing we've learned is that they aren't all "Gnostic" in character. 2008, Brother Zagreus Mike Luoma, Neo-gnosis, page 96:
   • Sarima drew her robes about her, and traced a pattern in the cold dust on a nearby stack of codexes. 1996, Gregory Maguire with Douglas Smith, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, page 266:
   • But by the time we reach that telescope and the imaginative gallery it introduces, we have seen things even more remarkable: ornately decorated quadrants of enameled brass, metal calipers, arcane charts, minutely inscribed maps, spheres within spheres like compass roses from other worlds, codexes and manuscripts, cylinders, dials, rings, rods and boxes. 2009 April 3, Edward Rothstein, “The Cosmos, Surveyed”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022:
   • To discover and possess Greek codexes then became the ambition of every cultured person 1898, Bella Duffy, The Tuscan Republics (Florence, Siena, Pisa, and Lucca) with Genoa, page 335:
   • Only eleven codexes form the division that is intitled CHRISTIAN I. 1770, Giuseppe Marco Antonio Baretti, A journey from London to Genoa, through England, Portugal, Spain, and France, page 62:
   • From its inception, the index has provided a window onto the history of the book, for it took the advent of a particular type of book — the codex, a sheaf of pages fastened along one edge — to make an index a practical possibility. The progenitor of the modern bound book, the codex gradually supplanted the scroll, a medium inimical to the indexer’s art. 2022 February 15, Margalit Fox, “Look It Up? Only if You’re Dishonest and Ignorant”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2022:
   • The great body of Old English poetry is preserved in three volumes, or codexes, of miscellaneous content 1909, George Philip Krapp, Modern English: Its Growth and Present Use, page 26:
2. An official list of medicines and medicinal ingredients.
   • the French codex

Forms

Deriveds

cryptex

Relateds

code · codicology · stemma codicum · caudex · pharmacopoeia (an official list of medicines and medicinal ingredients) · codifier · formulary (an official list of medicines and medicinal ingredients) · dispensatory (an official list of medicines and medicinal ingredients) · codify · codification

Synonyms

pharmacopoeia

Translations (27)

es códex (early book) · nah amoxtli (early book) · bg ко́декс (early book) · id kodeks (early book) · ja 書誌 (early book) · tr tedvin (early book) · kmr pirtûk (early book) · nci āmoxtli (early book) · fr codex (early book) · el σωμάτιο (early book) · ca còdex (early book) · he קוֹדֶקְס (early book) · hu (állami) gyógyszerkönyv (official list of medicines and medicinal ingredients) · uk ко́декс (early book) · el κώδικας (early book) · de Kodex (early book) · hu kódex (early book) · eo kodekso (early book) · fi koodeksi (early book) · pl kodeks (early book) · tr mahtuta (early book) · ar مَخْطُوطَة (early book) · it codice (early book) · ru ко́декс (early book) · tr kodeks (early book) · es códice (early book) · pt códice (early book)