TRUNK Copy link • TRUNKThe body of a tree, stirps (the stock, as the animating and supporting principal part of a tree; opposed to the branches and leaves, as growing from it and dependent upon it; it sometimes includes the whole stem with the roots): truncus (the naked, dry part of the tree; opposed to the branches and leaves, and even to the top itself, as its ornament; in short, so far as it answers to the trunkof the human body, as distinguished from stirps; truncus means the lower part of the stem; stirps, the higher). ☞ In good prose stipes (in poetry synonymous with truncus or stirps) is only “pole;” caudex, a “block” or “log;” i. e., piece of wood, cut up or not, too short to be recognized as a stem or trunk (Döderlein). Of the human body, truncus (corporis). Proboscis, rostrum: of an elephant, proboscis, -idis (Plin.); manus (Cic.). Chest, area: cista: capsa: armarium, scrinium. pyxis. Little trunk, arcula: capsula: cistula: cistellula. SYN. in BOX.