laneus

Forms

lāneus (feminine lānea, neuter lāneum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lāna (“wool”) + -eus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces lāna back to Proto-Italic *wlānā- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ulh₁-neh₂- (“wool”), literally “plucked material”, and lists among its cognates Ancient Greek λῆνος (lênos), Lithuanian vìlna and Welsh gwlan.^[4] It survives in Romance, for example as French lange (“swaddling cloth”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Plautus,^[4][5][3] who has scutulam ob oculōs lāneam, a woollen patch over the eyes.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it means made of wool: Cicero has a woollen cloak, Virgil a woollen fillet, and Suetonius, in the life of Augustus, a woollen undershirt.^[6][2] Catullus has lāneum latusculum, “a little flank as soft as wool”, and Pliny the Elder uses it of things that look or feel like wool.^[2][7] In medieval Latin it described woollen clothing and cloth, pannus lāneus, in Aldhelm, Ælfric's glossary and Bede,^[8] and as a masculine noun it meant woollen cloth.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus mentions a woollen eye patch.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of softness.^[2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions a woollen cloak.^[6][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has a woollen fillet in the Georgics.^[6][2]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius mentions a woollen undershirt.^[6]
• Medieval Latin – Bede and other writers in Britain use it of woollen clothing.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of wool, woollen.^[2][6][10]
2. Resembling wool in look or texture; soft.^[2][7]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) Woollen cloth.^[9][8]

Related words

• lāna
• lānārius
• lāniger

Usage notes

Niermeyer also records a medieval laneus meaning a peasant's holding, as a numbered entry of its own.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson