lac

Forms

lac n (genitive lactis); third declension^[1] The nominative and accusative is also lacte, in Ennius, Plautus and Cato, and lact in Varro and Pliny.^[2][3][4] Apuleius has a masculine accusative lactem.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *glagt- (“milk”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *glg-t- (“milk”).^[3][1] Cognate with Ancient Greek γάλα (gála, “milk”), genitive γάλακτος (gálaktos), and Old Armenian կաթն (katʿn, “milk”).^[3][2] De Vaan explains the Latin loss of the initial ⟨g-⟩ by dissimilation, and rejects both Leumann's view that the word was borrowed from Greek and Sihler's reconstruction with an initial ⟨*dl-⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author;^[3] in the Truculentus the nurse needs milk (lact), and Ennius has the cheek that blushed “like milk mixed with purple”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is milk, and a type of whiteness, as in Ennius.^[2][1] It was proverbial for likeness: in Plautus no water is more like water nor milk more like milk than one twin is like the other.^[2] By likeness it is the milky juice of plants, as Varro's milk of the fig branch, and the spawn of oysters (Pliny the Elder).^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “milk”.^[5] English lactic (1790) comes through French from its genitive ⟨lactis⟩.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a nurse's milk and of twins as like as milk.^[2][3][7]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of milk-white skin.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of the milky juice of the fig.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of oyster spawn.^[2][7]
• 1790 – English lactic.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Milk, (poetic) milk-white colour.^[2][1][4]
2. The milky juice of plants.^[2][1]
3. The spawn (of oysters).^[2]

Word family

• collactāneus
• lactāneus
• lactāris
• lactārius
• lactātum
• lacteō
• lacteolus
• lactēscō
• lacteus
• lacticīnium
• lactifer
• lactineus

Related words

• dēlicus
• lactō
• English lactic

Usage notes

Tam similis quam lacte lactī, “as like as milk to milk”, was the Latin for “as like as two peas”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de