lucidus

Forms

lūcidus (feminine lūcida, neuter lūcidum, comparative lūcidior, superlative lūcidissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from lūceō (“to shine”) with the suffix -idus.^[2][3][1] The verb belongs to lūx (“light”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *louk- (“light”) and Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light”), cognate with Sanskrit रोचते (rócate, “shines”), Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “clear, white”) and Hittite lukk- (“to get light, dawn”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Lucretius,^[5] who speaks of the “bright shafts of day”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is bright or shining, of sources of light, as Horace's bright stars, of polished surfaces, as Virgil's gleaming spear points, and of white things, as Tibullus' white sheep;^[2][6] Seneca calls Bacchus the bright glory of the sky.^[2][6] Of a place or time of day it is light, as Vitruvius' well-lit buildings, and of water and air clear and translucent, as Ovid's clear river.^[2] It is also clear to the mind, lucid, as Lucretius' “I write such clear verses on a dark subject”, and in an inscription splendid or glorious, of deeds.^[2][1]

Lewis and Short note that Cicero does not use it as an adjective.^[6] The TLL finds the comparative from Ovid and the superlative from Vitruvius.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “bright, lightsome, full of light, clear, lucid” and “irreproachable”.^[7] English lucid is from it, first in the 1590s as “bright, shining”.^[8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the bright shafts of day and of clear verse.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of well-lit buildings.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a clear river.^[2][5]
• 1590s – Borrowed into English as lucid.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bright, shining; gleaming; white.^[2][6][1][7]
2. (of a place) Light, full of light.^[2][7]
3. (of water, air) Clear, translucent.^[2]
4. Clear to the mind, lucid.^[2][1][7]
5. Splendid, glorious;^[2][7] (Ecclesiastical Latin) irreproachable.^[2][7]

Word family

• dīlūcidus
• lūciditās
• sublūcidus
• dilūcidē
• ēlūcidō
• lūcidē
• pellūcidus
• trānslūcidus

Related words

• lūcēns
• lūceō
• lūcerna
• lūx
• lūmen
• English lucid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. ^ 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 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 e f Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com