Etymologically
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lacerna

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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