occiput

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin occiput (“the back part of the head”). Compare sinciput.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒk.sɪ.pʌt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑk.səˌpʌt/, /ˈɑk.səp.ət/

Noun

occiput (plural occipita or occiputs)

1. (chiefly anatomy) The back part of the head or skull.

   Antonym: sinciput

   • 1953, Isaac Asimov, “9: The Conspirators”, in Second Foundation (Foundation Series), Panther Books Ltd, Part II: Search by the Foundation, page 95:

     And then came Turbor, who sat quietly and unemotionally through the fifteen minute process, and Munn, who jerked at the first touch of the electrodes, and then spent the session rolling his eyes as though he wished he could turn them backwards and watch through a hole in his occiput.

   • 2002, Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel, published 2008:

     He wore a large white cotton Nubian shirt, trimmed with red pompons, and shaved his head, except for one lock at the occiput ‘by which Mohammed lifts you up on Judgement Day’.

Derived terms

• basiocciput
• occipital (adjective)
• occipito-, occipit-
• supraocciput

Related terms

• occipital bone

Translations

Translations

• Arabic: قَذَال m (qaḏāl)
• Armenian: ծոծրակ (hy) (cocrak)
• Aromanian: mãdular n
• Bulgarian: тил (bg) m (til)
• Catalan: occípit m
• Czech: týl (cs) m
• Dutch: achterhoofd (nl) n
• Esperanto: okcipito, postkranio
• Finnish: takaraivo (fi)
• French: occiput (fr) m
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: efterholle

• German: Hinterkopf (de) m
• Hausa: kwanyā f
• Hungarian: tarkó (hu), nyakszirt (hu)
• Irish: cúlphlaic f, ocsapat m
• Italian: occipite (it) m
• Latgalian: pakauss m
• Latvian: pakausis (lv)
• Lithuanian: pakaušis
• Polish: potylica (pl) f
• Portuguese: occipício m, occipúcio m, occipital (pt) m, occiput m
• Russian: заты́лок (ru) (zatýlok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: затиљак m

  Latin: zatiljak (sh) m

• Slovak: tylo n
• Spanish: occipucio (es) m, colodrillo (es) m
• Swedish: bakhuvud (sv) n
• Tagalog: pilipot, pangawol
• Tamil: பின்னந்தலை (ta) (piṉṉantalai)
• Thai: ท้ายทอย (th) (táai-tɔɔi)
• Turkish: artkafa (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: اكسه (eñse)

• Ukrainian: поти́лиця f (potýlycja)
• Yoruba: ìpàkọ́

References

• “occiput”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “occiput”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “occiput”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “occiput”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin occiput.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔk.si.pyt/

Noun

occiput m (plural occiputs)

1. (anatomy) occiput

   Antonym: sinciput

Related terms

• chef
• occipital

Further reading

• “occiput”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der.

Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder.

Proto-Indo-European *h₁óp(i)

Proto-Italic *op

Latin ob

Latin ob-

substratebor.?

Proto-Indo-European *kap-?

Proto-Indo-European *kap-

Proto-Indo-European *káput

Proto-Italic *kaput

Latin caput

Latin occiput

From ob- (“at, before, over”) + caput (“the head”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɔk.kɪ.pʊt]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɔt.t͡ʃi.put]

Noun

occiput n (genitive occipitis); third declension

1. (anatomy) the occiput; the poll (the back part of the head)

   Synonym: occipitium

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	occiput	occipita
genitive	occipitis	occipitum
dative	occipitī	occipitibus
accusative	occiput	occipita
ablative	occipite	occipitibus
vocative	occiput	occipita

Derived terms

• occipitālis
• occipitium

Descendants

• English: occiput
• French: occiput
• Italian: occipite
• Portuguese: occiput
• Sicilian: uccìpiti

References

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

Portuguese

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der.

Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder.

Proto-Indo-European *h₁óp(i)

Proto-Italic *op

Latin ob

Latin ob-

substratebor.?

Proto-Indo-European *kap-?

Proto-Indo-European *kap-

Proto-Indo-European *káput

Proto-Italic *kaput

Latin caput

Latin occiputubor.

Portuguese occiput

Unadapted borrowing from Latin occiput.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ok.siˈpu.t͡ʃi/, /ok.siˈput͡ʃ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɔk.siˈput/

• Hyphenation: oc‧ci‧put

Noun

occiput m (plural occiputs)

1. (anatomy) occiput (back of the head or skull)

   Synonyms: occipício, occipúcio, occipital

Further reading

• “occiput”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “occiput”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French occiput, from Latin occiput.

Noun

occiput n (plural occiputuri)

1. occiput

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	occiput	occiputul	occiputuri	occiputurile
genitive-dative	occiput	occiputului	occiputuri	occiputurilor
vocative	occiputule		occiputurilor