lenocinium

Forms

lēnōcinium n (genitive lēnōciniī or lēnōcinī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lēnō (“pimp”) + -cinium.^[2][3][4] De Vaan explains the varying suffixes of lēnō and lēna as remodellings of an old n-stem, perhaps meaning "one who lets", and possibly the same stem as in lēnis (“gentle”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD find it first in Plautus;^[5][2] in the Epidicus a man asks whether he is running a brothel, keeping other men's women at home.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is the trade of a pimp or brothel-keeper: in the Mercator a man fears he and his wife will be accused of pimping, Suetonius speaks of professing it, and the jurists define it and make a husband who keeps a wife caught in adultery liable to a charge of it.^[6] Figuratively it is an allurement: Cicero speaks of the enticements of vices and desires.^[2][6] It is also cosmetics and finery, as when Seneca praises a woman who never stained her face with colours and paints, and Suetonius says Augustus cared nothing for finery.^[2][6] Of style it is meretricious ornament: Quintilian complains that people seek not ornaments but allurements, and says a statement of facts lacks such embellishments.^[6][2] Tacitus uses it of a speech with no flattery added.^[2][6] Stelten gives "pandering, traffic in vice, allurement" for Church Latin.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of brothel-keeping.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the enticements of vice.^[2][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of meretricious ornament of style.^[2][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of flattery in a speech.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The trade of a pimp, pimping, pandering, brothel-keeping.^[2][6][1]
2. An allurement, enticement, charm.^[2][6][1]
3. Cosmetics, finery;^[2][6] (rhetoric) meretricious embellishment.^[2][6]
4. Flattery, blandishment.^[2][1]

Related words

• lēnō
• lēna
• lēnōcinor
• lēnōnius

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson