Etymologically
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litura

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [lɪˈtuː.ra][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [liˈtuː.ra][1]

Forms

litūra f (genitive litūrae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin linō (“to smear”) + -ūra.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces linō to Proto-Italic *lina- (“to smear”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂li-n-H-.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on, who has it only in his speeches;[3][2][5] Cicero uses it of a fraud detected by the erasure in some accounts.[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was the smoothing of the wax on a writing tablet to delete something, and so an erasure or correction: Cicero asks the jury whether they see that a whole name is written over an erasure.[2][6] The TLL finds it in poetry from Horace on.[3] Propertius has a letter blotted by tears, and Martial a body with no blemish.[2] Columella uses it of a smearing that keeps off sun and rain.[2][6] Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with littera.[3]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of an erasure in accounts.[2][3][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, its first poet.[3][5]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of a blot made by tears.[2][5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of a protective smearing.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A smearing, daubing.[2][6][7][1]
  2. An erasure on a wax tablet; a correction; a place where writing has been erased.[2][6][1]
  3. A blot, smudge; a blemish.[2][1]

Word family

  • litūrārius
  • litūrō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson