Etymologically
Log in

laqueo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 07:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

laqueo1 ensnare

Forms

laqueō (present infinitive laqueāre, perfect active laqueāvī, supine laqueātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

The verb “to ensnare” is from Latin laqueus (“noose, snare”) + -ō.[2][3][1] De Vaan finds no convincing etymology for laqueus itself and rejects the old derivation from laciō (“to entice”), which fits neither the sounds nor the meaning.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Grattius, Manilius and Columella on.[3] Manilius speaks of those who extentis laqueare profundum retibus, “ensnare the deep with outspread nets”.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Columella it describes an animal's body bound fast with ropes,[5][3] and in Solinus serpents that entangle the legs of elephants.[3] Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of entangling the limbs of resisting enemies,[5][3] and Lactantius Placidus, commenting on Statius, says that Erigone hanged herself in her grief.[6] The figurative sense “to ensnare” appears in Juvencus, of an error of the right eye.[5][7]

Medieval charters of Hungary use it of catching animals in nets and, figuratively, of people bound by sentences of excommunication.[8] The TLL lists Romance descendants such as Old Italian lacciare, Italian allacciare, Old French lacier and Portuguese laçar.[3]

Timeline

  • 1st century AD – Manilius uses it of ensnaring the sea with nets;[5][3][9] Columella of binding an animal with ropes.[5][3][9]
  • 1st half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus uses the participle of the entangled legs of elephants.[3][9]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of entangling the limbs of resisting enemies.[5][3][9]
  • 1428 – A Hungarian charter uses it of animals caught in nets.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To enclose in a noose, ensnare, trap.[2][5]
  2. To bind or tie with cords; to plait (a net).[5][3]
  3. (reflexive) To hang oneself.[6]
  4. (figurative) To entangle, catch out.[5][7]

Word family

laqueo2 panel a ceiling

Forms

laqueō (present infinitive laqueāre, perfect active laqueāvī, supine laqueātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

The verb “to panel a ceiling” is from Latin laquear (“panelled ceiling”) + -ō, according to Wiktionary,[1] and Lewis & Short also derive it from that noun.[5] The OLD instead takes it as a back-formation from the participle laqueātus (“panelled”),[2] the form in which nearly all its uses occur.[5][6] De Vaan lists laqueātus, attested from Ennius on, among the derivatives of laqueus (“noose”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest instance is a line of Ennius quoted by Cicero, tectis caelatis laqueatis, “under carved and panelled roofs”;[5][6] Servius quotes the line with lacuatis.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Classical writers use the participle of panelled or coffered ceilings and buildings: Cicero of a temple and of houses, Horace of roofs, Livy of the Capitoline temple of Jupiter, and Suetonius of Nero's dining rooms.[5][6] Ovid applies it to caves vaulted with tufa and pumice,[6] and Manilius uses the present participle of stars that adorn the sky like the panels of a ceiling.[6][7]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius has laqueata of panelled roofs, in a line quoted by Cicero.[5][6][9]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses laqueata tecta.[5][9]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of roofs.[5][9]
  • 1st century AD – Manilius uses the present participle of the starry sky.[6][7][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To adorn with a panelled or coffered ceiling; mostly in the participle laqueātus.[2][5][6]
  2. (figurative) To adorn as if with a panelled ceiling.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de