latrunculus

Forms

latrunculus m (genitive latrunculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin latrō² (“robber”) + -culus, a diminutive.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Cicero, who speaks scornfully of a campaign against sheepskin-clad brigands in Sardinia.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word usually named a robber or bandit, often with contempt:^[2] Livy has Thracian brigands, and the jurists distinguish hostes, on whom the Roman people has declared war, from mere latrunculi and praedones.^[2][6]

It was also the name of a piece in a board game of war played on a board of squares, usually eight by eight:^[2] Varro and Seneca speak of playing with latrunculi, and Pliny the Elder reports a claim that apes had played the game.^[2][7] The word was later applied to pieces in other games such as chess and draughts.^[1]

In the Vulgate it means a hired soldier,^[6][7] and medieval Latin used it for a mercenary, a highwayman, a thief and a usurper.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of brigands in Sardinia.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the pieces in a board game.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of Thracian brigands.^[2][5]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian contrasts latrunculi with enemies in war.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for a hired soldier.^[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A robber, brigand, bandit, usually said with contempt.^[2][4]
2. A piece in a board game of war, played on a board of squares.^[2][6]
3. (Late Latin) A hired soldier, mercenary.^[6][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A thief; a usurper.^[8]

Word family

• latrunculārius
• latrunculator

Related words

• latrō²

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill