lacinia

Forms

lacinia f (genitive laciniae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Proto-Indo-European *lh₂k- (“to tear”), through a nasal stem from which de Vaan also explains lancinō (“to tear to pieces”).^[2] It belongs with lacer (“torn, mangled”),^[3][4][2] and Wiktionary gives the root as *leh₂k-.^[1] Cognate with Ancient Greek λακίς (lakís, “rent; tatters”) and λακίζω (lakízō, “to tear”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][2] for the hem of a garment: one weeping character holds another by it,^[3] and another is told to take the hem and wipe off the sweat.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is the edge, flap or hem of a garment;^[3][7] Cicero has the idiom laciniā obtinēre, to hold something only by the hem, barely.^[3][7] It was also a strip of cloth and, in Apuleius, in the plural, clothes.^[3][6] By likeness it named a hanging piece of flesh such as the two wattles of she-goats, a strip or edge of land, and in Columella a small group of animals in a flock.^[3][7][6]

Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for a small tassel.^[8] The word lives on in dialects of southern Italy and central Sardinia.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the hem of a garment.^[3][4][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero has laciniā obtinēre “to hold by the hem”.^[7][9]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it for a small group of a flock.^[3][9]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the wattles of she-goats and for a strip of land.^[3][7][9]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses the plural for clothes.^[3][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The edge, flap or hem of a garment; a fringe.^[3][5]
2. A strip of cloth, a rag.^[3]
3. (plural) Clothes, dress.^[3][7]
4. A hanging fleshy part, such as the wattles or dewlap of an animal.^[3][7]
5. A narrow strip or edge of land.^[3][7]
6. A small group (of animals).^[3][6]
7. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A small tassel.^[8]

Word family

• laciniātim
• laciniātus
• laciniōsus

Related words

• lacer
• lacerō
• lancinō

Usage notes

Festus connected it with lanius “butcher” and dēlaniāre “to tear apart”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de