lacus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɫa.kʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈlaː.kus]^[1]

Forms

lacus m (genitive lacūs); fourth declension^[1] Late Latin also has a second-declension genitive laci.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *laku-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *lok-u- (“lake, pool”); the /a/ may come from unrounding after a velarized /l/.^[3][1]

Cognate with Old Irish loch (“lake”), Ancient Greek λάκκος (lákkos, “pond, pit”) and Old English lagu (“sea, water”).^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[3][6] whose character says he will run to a fishpond or a lake to fetch mud.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a lake or pond, and lacus siccus, “a dry lake”, was proverbial for something useless.^[4] It was also an artificial basin, cistern or reservoir, as a bathing pool in an inscription, and a trough or vat, as Cato's vat into which the oil flows and Virgil's trough where smiths quench hot bronze.^[4] Lucilius used it for a panel of a ceiling.^[4]

In Christian and Medieval Latin it meant a pit or grave, the lions' den of Daniel, and a prison or hell.^[7] It survives as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese lago and French and Romanian lac.^[1] English lake came from Old French and Latin in the early 12th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a lake.^[4][6]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it for a ceiling panel.^[4][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for an oil vat.^[4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for a smith's trough.^[4][6]
• early 12th century – English lake is first recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lake, pond.^[4][2]
2. A basin, cistern, reservoir.^[4][1]
3. A trough, vat.^[4][1]
4. A ceiling panel.^[4]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A pit; a den; a prison.^[7]

Word family

• laccātus
• lacusculus
• laciculus
• laculatus
• lacūna

Related words

• English lake
• English lacuna
• English lagoon

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes lacuna, any standing water in poetic language, from lacus and stagnum, standing water kept fresh by springs.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper