lippus

Forms

lippus (feminine lippa, neuter lippum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Manuscripts also spell it lyppus and lipus.^[2]

Etymology

It is perhaps inherited from Proto-Italic *l(e)ipo-, from Proto-Indo-European *l(e)ip-o- (“sticky, fat”), with the doubled stop of many Latin adjectives for physical defects; de Vaan compares Ancient Greek λίπος (lípos, “fat”) but finds the link in meaning not compelling.^[3] The OLD compares Sanskrit लिम्पति (limpáti, “smears”) and Ancient Greek ἀλείφω (aleíphō, “to anoint”).^[4] The TLL notes that this comparison has to assume a popular doubling of the consonant and a shifted sense.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[3][5] in whose Miles Gloriosus someone asks whether he looks bleary-eyed.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It describes a person with watery or inflamed eyes, and the eyes themselves: in the Persa someone says his master cannot keep his hands off him any more than a bleary eye can be left alone.^[4][6] Vitruvius uses it of eyes, and Martial of an eye socket.^[4] Wiktionary also gives half-blind, and figuratively blind to one's own faults.^[1] The TLL records descendants in Langobardic and Catalan.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of bleary eyes.^[4][6][3][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius.^[4][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial of an eye socket.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having watery, bleary or inflamed eyes; of the eyes, bleary.^[4][6][1]
2. Half-blind, purblind.^[1]
3. (figurative) Blind to one's own faults.^[1]

Word family

• lippitūdō
• lippulus
• lippōsus

Related words

• lippēscō
• lippidus
• lippiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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