Etymologically
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lacinia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫaˈkɪ.ni.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [laˈt͡ʃiː.ni.a][1]

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

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