lanius

Forms

lanius m (genitive laniī or lanī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[2][1] De Vaan's reconstruction is inherited from Proto-Italic *lanio- (“breaker”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃lomH-io-, from the root *lem(H)- (“to break”): the butcher would be “the breaker (of bones)”, as Dutch has beenhouwer (“butcher”).^[2][1] He explains the /a/ by the unrounding after /l/ that Schrijver posits for lacus, and finds the meaning attractive.^[2] If so, it is related to Old Irish ro·laimethar (“to dare”), Lithuanian lémti (“to decide, determine”), Old High German lam (“lame”) and perhaps Ancient Greek νωλεμές (nōlemés, “without pause”).^[2]

Walde and Hofmann regard the whole family of these words as Etruscan, because the Romans called lanista Etruscan; de Vaan thinks this rash.^[2] Köbler gives an Etruscan origin.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[2][3] meaning a butcher: in the Captivi a character speaks of butchers qui concinnant liberis orbas ovis, “who leave the ewes bereft of their young”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is the ordinary word for a butcher or slaughterer:^[5][4] Terence lists cetarii, lanii, coqui, “fishmongers, butchers, cooks”,^[4][6] Livy has a knife snatched from a butcher,^[4][6] and ad lanium pervenire meant to end up at the butcher's.^[5] Plautus and Varro also use it of the man who slaughters sacrificial victims,^[6] and Plautus of an executioner.^[4][6]

Later it is used of anyone who kills cruelly: in Petronius a wolf has killed the flock “as if a butcher had bled them”,^[7] and Tertullian calls the physician Herophilus, who dissected six hundred people, medicus aut lanius, “a doctor or a butcher”.^[7][4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for butchers and for executioners.^[4][6][3]
• 190–159 BC – Terence lists butchers beside fishmongers and cooks.^[4][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for the slaughterer of sacrificial animals.^[6][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it.^[4][3]
• before 66 AD – Petronius compares a wolf to a butcher.^[7][3]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian calls a physician a butcher.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A butcher, a slaughterer.^[5][4]
2. A slaughterer of sacrificial victims.^[6]
3. (figurative) An executioner, a cruel killer.^[4][6][7]

Word family

• laniārium
• laniārius
• laniēnus
• laniō
• laniolum

Related words

• lanista

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften