Etymologically
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lacteus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɫak.te.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈlak.te.us][1]

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
  • 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