Etymologically
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lucesco

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫuːˈkeːs.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [luˈt͡ʃɛs.ko][1]

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

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.