lacteus

Forms

lacteus (feminine lactea, neuter lacteum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lac (“milk”) + -eus.^[2][3][1] De Vaan takes lac to be cognate with Ancient Greek γάλα (gála, “milk”); he rejects Leumann's view that it was borrowed from Greek.^[4] Wiktionary notes that the etymology is controversial, with no agreement on the cognates or on whether the word was inherited or borrowed.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Livius Andronicus,^[4][3][5] meaning of milk: a line of his tragedy speaks of milking out milky help.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant made of or full of milk, as udders in Virgil;^[2][6] Martial uses it of a sucking pig and home-born slaves fed on milk.^[2][7] By likeness it was milky, as the juice of the fig in Pliny the Elder, and above all milk-white, as the necks in Virgil.^[2][8] Cicero's Aratea has lacteus orbis for the Milky Way, Ovid via lactea and Pliny circulus lacteus.^[2][7] Quintilian praises the “milky richness”, lactea ubertas, of Livy's style.^[8][7]

Medieval writers in Britain use it of food made of milk,^[9] and Niermeyer gives the senses sweet and pure.^[10]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it of milk.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls the Milky Way lacteus orbis.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of milk-white necks.^[2][8][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian praises the lactea ubertas of Livy.^[8][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of milk, made of milk; full of milk.^[2][6]
2. Unweaned, sucking.^[2][6]
3. Milky, like milk; of plants, full of milky juice.^[2][8]
4. Milk-white.^[2][6]
5. lacteus orbis, circulus lacteus, via lactea: the Milky Way.^[2][7]
6. (of style) Rich, flowing.^[8][7]
7. (Medieval Latin) Sweet, pure.^[10]

Word family

• lacteolus

Related words

• lac
• lactāneus
• lactāris
• lactārius
• lactātum
• lacteō
• lactēscō
• lacticīnium
• lactifer
• lactineus
• English lacteal

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill