Etymologically
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lacus

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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

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