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lacerna

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word lacerna

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Latin (lacer)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin lacer
Latin lacerna

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫaˈkɛr.na][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [laˈt͡ʃɛr.na][1]

Forms

lacerna f (genitive lacernae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is probably from Latin lacer (“torn”), compare lacinia (“flap of a garment”), as the OLD and the TLL suggest.[2][3] Lewis & Short also compare Ancient Greek ῥάκος (rhákos, “rag”),[4] and Wiktionary thinks it probably Etruscan.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[5] who in the Philippics mentions someone in shoes and toga, with neither Gallic sandals nor a lacerna.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is an open cloak fastened at the shoulder,[2] worn over the toga on journeys or in bad weather.[4] Wearing it in place of the toga was thought improper: Suetonius says Augustus told the aediles to let no one stand in the Forum or the Circus except in the toga, without a lacerna, and Gellius has a man reproached for running about in Gallic sandals and a lacerna.[4] It was worn in the theatre against the weather, sometimes drawn over the head as in Horace, and was usually white, rarely black, as in Martial and Seneca.[4] Propertius, Ovid and Velleius Paterculus mention it as a soldier's cloak, and Isidore of Seville calls it a fringed cloak once worn only by soldiers.[4][3] Juvenal has a dirty, torn one.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero in the Philippics.[4][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a cloak drawn over the head.[4]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius on Augustus' ban.[4]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville of a soldier's fringed cloak.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cloak or mantle fastened at the shoulder, worn over the toga.[2][4][1]

Word family

  • lacernātus
  • lacernula

Usage notes

Juvenal's Lacerna is the name of a rich charioteer.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Lacerna.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/lacerna. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·