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Page Last updated on 2 October, 2008
CODEX
With acknowledgements to The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (based on Historical Principles).
There is an entry for Codex in the above dictionary. (plural is Codices)
It comes from the Latin, Codex which meant originally a block of wood split into leaves or tablets, and thus a Book. Some of the later Emperors used the word to describe a book or set of Laws.
In England until the Middle Ages it was still used to describe a book or set of rules, the earliest known written example dated 1581.
The “x” was dropped later on and the word Code used to describe a digest of laws of a country. (1753), and in this form is still in use to-day meaning a set of rules.
We find it still in its original form in 1845 as a manuscript volume of the Scriptures e.g. Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, etc., and in use in Medicine meaning a collection of receipts (recipes) for the preparation of drugs.
Hence Codical, adjective.
Other words with the same root, are Codicil, Codiciliary, Codify, Codist, Codification, etc