Etymologically
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licium

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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