lubrico

Forms

lūbricō (present infinitive lūbricāre, perfect active lūbricāvī, supine lūbricātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin lūbricus (“slippery”) + -ō.^[2][3][4] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *(s)loufre/o-ko- and Proto-Indo-European *sle/oubʰ-ro- (“gliding”), and is related to Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan, “to creep, slide”) and Old English slūpan.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Juvenal is the earliest author recorded with the verb, in his eleventh satire, in the sense “to make slippery”.^[6][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The transitive sense “to make slippery or smooth” was postclassical.^[6] Arnobius and Prudentius use the participle lūbricātus, made slippery,^[6] and Prudentius also uses it figuratively, “to make uncertain”.^[7][4] Intransitively it meant “to be slippery”, and so “to be unsteady or uncertain”, in the Vulgate's Lamentations and in Apuleius;^[6][7] the TLL also records deponent forms.^[3]

It lives on in Romanian luneca and aluneca, “to slip”,^[1] and was borrowed again by the Romance languages and by English, where lubricate (1620s) comes from its past participle.^[1][8]

Timeline

• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it in the sense “to make slippery”.^[6][9]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius has the participle lūbricātus.^[6][9]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it literally and figuratively.^[6][7][9]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it intransitively, “to be slippery”.^[6][9]
• 1620s – English forms lubricate from its past participle.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make slippery or smooth; to lubricate.^[2][6]
2. (figurative) To make uncertain.^[7][4]
3. (intransitive) To be slippery; to be unsteady or uncertain.^[6][7]

Word family

• illūbricō

Related words

• lūbricus
• English lubricate

Usage notes

A separate word with the same spelling, the adverb lūbricō “smoothly, without friction”, also formed from lūbricus, is found in Celsus.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de