lotium

Forms

lōtium n (genitive lōtiī or lōtī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lōtus + -ium, from the participle of lavō (“to wash”).^[2][3][1] Wiktionary explains the name by the wide use of urine for washing and bleaching,^[1] and Isidore already said the fluid was commonly so called because clothes washed in it were made clean.^[3] De Vaan traces lavō to Proto-Italic *lowa- and Proto-Indo-European *(le-)louh₃- (“to wash”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Cato,^[3] who says that cabbage is good for the bowels and the urine.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that in verse it occurs in Catullus, and Isidore says it is the everyday word, while ūrīna is the proper term, used throughout by the technical writers.^[3] Petronius has the proverb nōn valet lōtium suum, of a good-for-nothing.^[5] Manuscripts also spell it ⟨loteum⟩ and ⟨lutium⟩.^[3] The TLL records descendants in Piedmontese and southern Sardinian, the latter mixed with lutum “mud”.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato, of urine.^[5][3][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, in verse.^[3][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius, in a proverb.^[5][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains the name from washing.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Urine.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• lōtiolentus

Related words

• lavō
• ūrīna

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de