lanceo

Forms

lanceō (present infinitive lanceāre); first conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1] Also lanciō.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin lancea (“light spear, lance”).^[3][4][1] It lives on in Italian lanciare, French lancer, Catalan llançar, Spanish lanzar and Portuguese lançar,^[3] and through Old French lancier in English launch.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tertullian is the first to use it, in a passage of Against Marcion that the TLL calls obscure; the dictionaries take it as “to wield a lance”.^[3][6][4]

Semantic evolution

Firmicus Maternus uses it in the sense “to pierce with a lance”, of men who will die by the lance,^[3][2] and so does Augustine, of Christ, who chose to be crucified, pierced with a lance and to die.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it means to handle a lance in exercise, to brandish a weapon like a lance, and to wound or pierce with a lance;^[7][8] Wiktionary adds “to launch, shoot”.^[1] Hungarian sources use it of charging the enemy with a lance.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian: to wield a lance.^[6][9]
• 334–337 AD – Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis: to pierce with a lance.^[3][9]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine, of the lance that pierced Christ.^[3][9]
• 1063 – A French charter: to brandish a spear.^[7]
• c. 1300 – English launch, through Old French.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, Late Latin) To wield or handle a lance.^[6][4][10]
2. (transitive) To pierce or wound with a lance.^[3][2][7]
3. (Medieval Latin, transitive) To brandish (a weapon) like a lance; to launch, hurl.^[7][1]

Related words

• lanceārius
• lanceola
• lancea
• English launch
• English lance

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
8. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson