lama

Forms

lāma f (genitive lāmae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] De Vaan notes that Latvian lãma (“hollow, pool”) and the Latin word could in theory both go back to Proto-Indo-European *leh₂-mo-, but the isolated position of the Latin word, and the possibility that the Baltic words come from *lem- (“to break”), make the connection rather uncertain.^[2] The OLD compares Latvian lāma, Lithuanian lomà and Bulgarian лам (lam, “pit”).^[3] Wiktionary also mentions an alternative source in the word behind lacus (“lake”), through an earlier *lacma or *lacsma.^[1]

Porphyrio, commenting on Horace, connected it with the Greek word for gullet.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ennius’ Annals,^[2][4] in a line about woodland glades, hiding places and muddy bogs.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was a rare word.^[4] Horace uses it in a letter of crossing hills, rivers and sloughs,^[4][5] and the epitome of Festus explains lacūna, a collection of water, as what some called lāma.^[5][4] The glossaries render it with words for muddy places.^[6]

In Medieval Latin it meant a marsh, a swampy valley, a pond or brushwood.^[7] It survives in Italian, Old Occitan, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese, among other Romance languages.^[4]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius writes of muddy bogs.^[4][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace writes of travelling through sloughs.^[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A marshy place, bog, slough.^[3][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A marsh, swampy valley or pond; also brushwood.^[7]

Related words

• lacuna
• Italian lama
• Catalan llama

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de