Ciceros

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An ancient Roman statesman and orator known for his speeches and writings; a style of eloquent and persuasive public speaking; a unit of typographic measurement approximately 12 points or 4.5 millimeters in length
2. A famous figure in Roman history celebrated for his legal and political speeches; a manner of skillful and convincing rhetoric; a traditional measure used in printing to specify font size and line length
3. A prominent Roman lawyer and philosopher noted for his influential discourse; a rhetorical approach marked by clarity and elegance; a standardized typographic dimension used in European printing practices

Etymology: The plural "ciceros" is the form of "cicero," a printing unit named after the Roman orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. The name comes from a 1467 Roman edition of his "Epistulae ad Familiares" ("Letters to My Friends"), printed by Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz. That edition's type was set in a size that printers came to use as a standard measure, so the book's author gave his name to the unit. The printing sense is the one that matters most here. Printers adopted the cicero as a fixed dimension, roughly twelve points, and the word spread through the trade in that technical meaning. The orator's own name is the root, so the typographic unit and the Roman lawyer and philosopher share a single source.