morsus

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɔr.sʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɔr.sus]

Perfect passive participle of mordeō (“I bite”).

morsus (feminine morsa, neuter morsum); first/second-declension participle

1. bitten, eaten, devoured, consumed, having been bitten
2. (figuratively) stung, pained, hurt, bitten, having been stung

First/second-declension adjective.

mordeō (“I bite”) +‎ -sus (action noun).

morsus m (genitive morsūs); fourth declension

1. a bite, sting
   • 524 CE, Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 3.7m:

     voluptăs omnis […]
     apiumque pār volantum
     ubi grāta mella fūdit,
     fugit et nimis tenācī
     ferit icta corda morsū.

     every pleasure […] , like swarming bees, it pours out delightful honey and then flees, hitting our beaten hearts with a long-lasting sting.

2. (figuratively) pain, vexation, bite, sting
3. (by extension) sharpness of flavor, sharp taste, pungency
4. (by extension) jaw, tooth, fang, fluke (of an anchor)
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.168–169:

     [...] Hīc fessās nōn vincula nāvēs
     ūlla tenent, uncō nōn alligat ancora morsū.

     Here [there are] not any cables tying weary ships, nor anchor with barbed fluke holding fast.
     (An anchor “bites” the sand not unlike a tooth.)

Fourth-declension noun.

• morsicō

• Catalan: mos
• Italian: morso
• Middle French: mors
  • French: mors
  • → English: morse
• Spanish: mueso

• “morsus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “morsus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "morsus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• morsus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the pain is very severe: acer morsus doloris est (Tusc. 2. 22. 53)