lectulus

Forms

lectulus m (genitive lectulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lectus (“bed, couch”) + -ulus, a diminutive, as Varro already notes.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces lectus to Proto-Italic *lekto/u- (“bed”), perhaps Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-tu- (“the lying”), from the root of *legʰ-e/o- (“to lie”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos, “bed”), Old Irish laigid (“lies down”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan, “to lie”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from Plautus,^[3][5] who uses it of a couch for reclining at table.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a couch or bed;^[2][6] Cicero speaks of men who promised to kill him in his own bed and remarks that philosophers mostly die in their beds.^[2][6] It is the dining couch, as in Terence's order to have couches spread, and the couch used for reading and study, as Crassus' couch in Cicero and in Horace.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “small bed, couch”.^[7] In medieval Latin it can mean a bier, a tomb and even a valley.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a dining couch.^[2][3][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of couches spread for a meal.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a bed and a couch for study.^[2][6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small couch, bed.^[2][6][1]
2. A couch for reclining at table.^[2][1]
3. A couch for reading and study.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A bier; a tomb.^[8]

Related words

• lectīca
• lectīcula
• lectīcārius
• lectus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill