lucesco

Forms

lūcēscō (present infinitive lūcēscere, perfect active lūxī); third conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1] It is also spelled lūcīscō,^[2][3] the spelling of many manuscripts, even old ones of Terence and Fronto; a scholiast on Terence remarks on the ⟨i⟩.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin lūceō (“to shine”) + -scō, an inchoative verb.^[2][1][5] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of lūx (“light”); the base goes back to Proto-Italic *l(o)ukē- (“to be light”) and Proto-Indo-European *luk-eh₁- (“to be light”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[6][4] used impersonally of daybreak: exīre ex urbe prius quam lūcēscat volō, “I want to leave the city before it grows light”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense was to begin to shine: Virgil uses it of a new sun, and Ovid of the Nones dawning on the morrow.^[3][7][2] Most often it was used impersonally of the day breaking: Terence has lūcēscit hoc iam, “it is getting light there now”, Cicero cum lūcīsceret, “at daybreak”, and Livy iam lūcēscēbat, “it was already growing light”.^[3][7][2] The TLL notes that Cicero and Livy use it far less often than illūcēscō.^[4]

Fronto uses it figuratively of a love that is beginning to shine,^[2][7][8] and Firmicus Maternus of hair that gleams golden.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it impersonally of daybreak.^[2][9]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses lūcēscit hoc iam.^[2][3][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the sun beginning to shine.^[3][9]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a day dawning.^[2][9]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it figuratively of love.^[7][8][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To begin to shine.^[2][3][10]
2. (of the day) To grow light, dawn;^[2][3][8] (impersonal) lūcēscit, it is growing light, day is breaking.^[2][3][8]
3. (figurative) To begin to shine (of a feeling).^[2][7]

Word family

• collucesco
• dīlūcēscō
• ēlūcēscō
• illūcēscō
• relūcescō

Related words

• lūx

Usage notes

Conte warns against confusing its forms with those of lūceō “shine” and lūgeō “mourn”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.