Etymologically
Log in

illudo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 12:51. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪlˈluː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ilˈluː.do][1]

Forms

illūdō (present infinitive illūdere, perfect active illūsī, supine illūsum); third conjugation[1] It is also spelled inlūdō.[2][3][4] Gellius has the first-conjugation form illudiābant.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + lūdō (“to play”).[2][1][4] De Vaan derives ⟨lūdō⟩ from Proto-Italic *loid-e/o- (“to play”) and Proto-Indo-European *loid- (“to let go frequently, play”), cognate with Lithuanian léisti (“to let”) and Middle Irish laídid (“impels”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest examples are from Terence, of making fun of someone: “you mock me quite arrogantly enough”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to make game of, mock, and to fool or dupe: in Cicero someone thought he was being tricked, or that the man himself was wrong.[2] Terence also uses it of trifling something away: in trying to oblige, a father nearly “fooled away” his daughter's life.[2] Virgil uses it of garments decked out with gold, and Silius Italicus and Tacitus of sexual abuse.[2] Lewis and Short call the sense “to ruin, destroy in sport” chiefly poetic and post-Augustan.[3][1]

Church Latin has it for mock, delude, deceive, deride.[7] English illude (early 15th century), “to trick, deceive”, is from it.[8]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence of mocking and of trifling away.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of duping.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of garments decked with gold.[2][6]
  • early 15th century – English illude.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make game of, mock, ridicule, jeer at.[2][3][1][7]
  2. (poetic) To deck out, adorn.[2]
  3. To fool, dupe, deceive.[2][7]
  4. To fool or trifle away; to ruin, destroy in sport.[2][1]
  5. To abuse sexually.[2][1]

Word family

  • illudium
  • illūsiō
  • illūsor
  • illūsīvus
  • illūsōrius

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com