Etymologically
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lenocinium

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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]

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