Etymologically
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lautus

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Forms

lautus (feminine lauta, neuter lautum, comparative lautior, superlative lautissimus); first/second-declension adjective, past participle of lavō[1] The participle also has the form lōtus, which the OLD finds used as an adjective perhaps only once, in Petronius.[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of lavō (“to wash”), used as an adjective.[1][2][3] De Vaan traces ⟨lavō⟩ to Proto-Italic *lowa- (“to wash”) and Proto-Indo-European *(le-)louh3- (“to wash”), cognate with Umbrian vutu (“let him wash”), Ancient Greek λούω (loúō, “I wash”) and Old English lēaþor (“soap foam”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is in Ennius' Saturae, of a man “carefree, cheerful, washed”.[1]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “washed, clean”.[1][5] From this it came to mean “well turned out, respectable, fine”, as in Plautus' “she is charming and elegant — how sensible!”, and of conduct “splendid”, as in Cicero's letters: “nothing will be more splendid or glorious for you”.[1][2] Of a way of life, meals and furnishings it is “sumptuous, luxurious”: Seneca speaks of a region where the finest shelter is a hut.[1]

Church Latin glosses it “elegant, sumptuous, splendid, grand, washed”.[5]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of a washed man.[1][3]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of an elegant girl.[1][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a splendid deed.[1][3]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of luxurious shelter.[1][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Washed, clean.[1][5]
  2. Well turned out, fine, elegant; splendid.[1][2][5]
  3. Sumptuous, luxurious.[1][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson