lubricus

Forms

lūbricus (feminine lūbrica, neuter lūbricum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Manuscripts also have the spelling libr-.^[2]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Italic *(s)loufre/o-ko-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sle/oubʰ-ro- (“gliding”).^[3][1] Cognate with Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan, “to creep, slide”) and Old English slūpan (“to slip”).^[3][4] Köbler sets it under a root Proto-Indo-European *sleubʰ- (“to glide, slip”) (Pokorny 963), with a question mark.^[5] Isidore of Seville derived it from lābor (“to slip”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] who has “a little too slippery a spot in the cellar” in the Miles gloriosus.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Of ground and steps it is slippery, giving no firm footing, and the neuter plural lūbrica is a slippery place, as Virgil's Salius rising from the slippery ground.^[4][6] It is of an oily or greasy consistency, hard to hold, as Cicero's eyes made slippery and mobile, of snakes and fish sinuous or wriggling, as Lucretius' lūbrica serpēns, of the bowels loose, and of surfaces smooth and sleek.^[4] Of streams it is gliding, and it is also said of time slipping by.^[4]

Figuratively it is hazardous or ticklish, as Cicero's style of speaking that is dangerous for a young man, and the neuter lūbricum is a dangerous situation, as in Cato.^[4][6] Wiktionary also gives fleeting, inconstant, deceitful and tricky.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “slippery, dangerous, impure”,^[7] and medieval Latin uses it for lewd.^[8] English lubric “slippery; lewd” came from it in the late 15th century.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a slippery spot.^[4][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato has the neuter of a dangerous situation.^[4][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of a snake and of gliding streams.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of slippery eyes and of a hazardous style.^[4][5]
• late 15th century – English lubric.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Slippery (of ground, steps);^[4][6][1][7] lūbricum, a slippery place.^[4]
2. Oily, slimy, hard to hold; sinuous, wriggling; smooth, sleek;^[4][1] (of the bowels) loose.^[4][1]
3. Gliding, flowing (of streams, of time); fleeting.^[4][1]
4. Hazardous, ticklish, unsteady; deceitful, tricky;^[4][6][1][7] lūbricum, a dangerous situation.^[4]
5. (Medieval Latin) Lewd, lascivious.^[8][7]

Word family

• lūbricitās
• lūbricō

Related words

• lābor
• English lubric
• English slip

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com