licium

Forms

līcium n (genitive līciī or līcī); second declension^[1] A spelling līceum is also found.^[2][3] Venantius Fortunatus has a feminine accusative plural līceās.^[3]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown: de Vaan finds no Indo-European etymology,^[4] and the OLD and the TLL call it doubtful.^[2][3] De Vaan reports Eichner's reading of the archaic form ⟨louiquiod⟩ on the Forum inscription as a miswritten ablative of ⟨*loikwio-⟩ “thread”.^[4] Wiktionary suggests a loan from a non-Indo-European language.^[1] The TLL records a derivation from ligō¹ (“to bind”),^[3] and Varro and Festus seem to have linked the old phrase ⟨in licium vocāre⟩ with illiciō (“to entice”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded first in the Twelve Tables,^[4][3][5] in the rule that theft is to be searched for lance et liciō, “with a dish and a thread”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the old legal formula of the search for stolen goods per lancem līciumque it is the cord of the search.^[2][3] In weaving it is the leash or heddle that separates the warp threads, as in Lucilius, Virgil and Tibullus, where licia tēlae addere means “to set up a web”;^[2][6] Pliny the Elder says that weaving with many leashes was an invention of Alexandria.^[6] More generally it is a thread or cord: Ovid has threads hanging from hedges, Virgil threads of three colours used in magic, and Petronius a string tying up a cloth.^[2] Ecclesiastical Latin used it of lace or web.^[7] It survives in Romance, in Italian liccio, Catalan llis and Spanish lizos.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables prescribe a search lance et liciō.^[3][5]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a weaver's leash.^[2][4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in weaving and in magic.^[2][6][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of threads.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder credits Alexandria with weaving on many leashes.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A length of yarn, a thread or cord; a string, lace.^[2][6]
2. Threads used in magic.^[2]
3. In weaving, a leash or heddle.^[2][6]
4. (law) In the formula per lancem līciumque, the cord of the search for stolen goods.^[2][3]

Word family

• bilīx
• līciātōrium
• liciatus
• licinium
• trilīx

References

1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson