lactes

Forms

lactēs f pl (genitive lactium); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lac (“milk”);^[2][3][4] Georges describes these intestines as covered with a milky fat.^[4] The TLL also mentions a derivation from lābī “to slip”,^[5] and Lewis & Short connected it with Ancient Greek λαγαρός (lagarós) and languidus.^[6] De Vaan traces the base to Proto-Italic *(g)lagt- and Proto-Indo-European *glg-t- (“milk”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[3][7] who uses it humorously of a hungry man's intestines, and in the proverb about tying up a runaway bitch with lambs' guts, for a useless precaution.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The word named the small intestines of four-footed animals, covered with a milky fat, and the dish of chitterlings made from them, as in Titinius' lactes agninae, lambs' chitterlings.^[2][4] Pliny the Elder uses it anatomically for the small intestines, through which food passes,^[6] and Persius pairs it with lungs as fat fare.^[4] Suetonius' lactes of lampreys refers to the milky substance in fish, the milt.^[8][1] Lewis & Short call the word ante-Classical and post-Augustan.^[6] Grammarians noted that Plautus used lactes as a masculine plural, distinct from lac.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the guts and in a proverb.^[4][8][7]
• end of the 2nd or beginning of the 1st century BC – Titinius mentions lambs' chitterlings.^[4][7]
• 34–62 AD – Persius pairs fat lactes with lungs.^[4][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the small intestines.^[6][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius mentions the lactes of lampreys.^[8][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural) The small intestines.^[2][6]
2. (as food) Chitterlings.^[2][4]
3. The milt of fish.^[1][8]

Usage notes

Plautus' proverb alligāre fugitīvam canem agnīnīs lactibus, to tie a runaway bitch with lambs' guts, describes a precaution that is bound to fail.^[8][4] The singular lactis is given only by Priscian, wrongly according to Lewis & Short.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier