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Glite Dictionary
locus classicus

locus classicus

1 9.9
A passage in a book or article often used as the best example of an idea
  • noun
  • /ˈloʊkəs ˈklæsɪkəs/
  • Literature
translation icon : locus classicus
  • The locus classicus of King's understanding of America is to be found in his address "I Have a Dream."

Examples

  • Greece is the locus classicus.

    Blog text (27)

  • That's the locus classicus from Proudhon.

    Quiz Show (1994)

  • The second passage, indeed, is the locus classicus of the boundary of the doorway of the home!

    Academic text (1991)

  • Rather, interwar Central Europe was the locus classicus of Brubaker's triadic relationship.

    Academic text (2016)

  • The locus classicus for this model is in the Monadology (para. 15):

    Academic text (1998)

  • Eliade (1964) identifies the shamanism of Central and North Asia as the locus classicus of shamanism.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The Arena Chapel frescoes of Giotto are a locus classicus for the novel; they mark the reawakening of the gestural in representation.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Lowe cites Metaphysics Book IX as the locus classicus for the distinction between rational and non-rational powers.

    Blog text (29)

  • Paul de Man's essay on the rhetoric of Romantic temporality is perhaps the locus classicus for this theoretical suspicion of the "cult of the moment" (204).

    Academic text (1993)

  • Dr. Smith explained that the locus classicus for understanding existentialism is found in Sartre's "Being and Nothingness."

Synonyms

classic example
vslocus classicus
26 3.2

A clear, typical case that shows the main idea

refers to a specific authoritative passage in literature rather than any example
classic case
vslocus classicus
20 3.5

A typical example of a situation or problem

points to an exact authoritative textual passage instead of a general situation example

Surface Forms

locus classicus singular
loci classici plural

Morphology

locus + classicus

The phrase is a direct Latin composition: 'locus' (place) + 'classicus' (classical/typical), so the literal sense 'classical place' reasonably leads to the idea of a canonical or exemplary passage. However, it is a scholarly, borrowed Latin term and its conventionalized sense in English requires some register-specific knowledge, so the meaning is partially predictable but not fully transparent to a typical B1 learner.

Etymology

Locus classicus comes from old Latin words: locus meaning 'place' and classicus meaning 'classic'. Scholars used the phrase when they pointed to one well-known 'place' in a book as the best example of an idea, so today locus classicus means the 'best or most typical passage' to show a point.