lana

Forms

lāna f (genitive lānae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *wlānā- (“wool”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ulh₁-neh₂- (“wool”), literally “plucked material”.^[2][1] Cognate with Old Irish olann (“wool”), Sanskrit ऊर्णा (ū́rṇā-, “wool”), Ancient Greek λῆνος (lênos, “wool”) and Gothic 𐍅𐌿𐌻𐌻𐌰 (wulla, “wool”).^[2][3] De Vaan adds that Schrijver rejects a link with vellus (“fleece”) and vellō (“to pluck”) while Meiser keeps it, and that the Hittite words for wool may not belong here.^[2] Varro took it for a Greek word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[2][5] who has sheep that give neither milk nor any wool in the Bacchides and “I provide wool, gold, clothes, purple” in the Menaechmi.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is the natural covering of sheep, wool, and aurea lāna is the Golden Fleece.^[3][6] It is wool as a material for cloth, a piece of wool or woollen stuff, as Ovid's witch who curses with threaded wool, and wool-working as an occupation, as Terence's woman earning her living by wool and the loom.^[3][1]

It is also similar material from other creatures, soft hair, feathers or down, as Martial's swan's down, and also cotton, and the down on fruit, as Calpurnius' quinces.^[3][6] Church Latin glosses it “wool”,^[7] and medieval Latin uses it of a fleece or woolfell.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of sheep's wool and of wool as goods.^[3][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of wool-working.^[3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of threaded wool in magic.^[3][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial of swan's down.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wool (of sheep);^[3][6][1][7] aurea lāna, the Golden Fleece.^[3]
2. Wool as a material; a piece of woollen stuff; spinning, wool-working.^[3][1]
3. Down, soft hair, feathers; cotton; the down on fruit.^[3][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) A fleece, woolfell.^[8]

Word family

• lānāris
• lānārius
• lānātus
• lanestris
• lāneus
• lānicium
• lānicutis
• lānificus
• lānifricārius
• lāniger
• lanipendens
• lānipendius

Related words

• vellō
• vellus
• lānūgō
• English wool

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 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
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill