lucror

Forms

lucror (present infinitive lucrārī, perfect active lucrātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lucrum (“gain, profit”), a denominative verb.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces lucrum to Proto-Italic *luklo-, dissimilated to ⟨lukro-⟩, and Proto-Indo-European *lh₂u-tló- (“seizure, gain”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀπολαύω (apolaúō, “to enjoy”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌽 (laun, “reward”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero, Horace, Livy and Manilius on, and more often in legal language.^[3] In the Verrines Cicero speaks of discharging sailors for a fixed price and pocketing all their pay.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is to gain as profit,^[2] as in Horace's Pythias, who tricks Simo out of a talent, and in the gamblers of Tacitus' Germania, who stake everything on winning or losing.^[2][5] It is also used of things not material: Horace speaks of one who came back with a name won from conquered Africa.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of saving on salt, and Apuleius of saving money.^[2][6] Cicero has it in the sense of being spared something: “let him be spared the evidence of his old infamy”.^[2][5] It is common in legal texts.^[3]

In Christian Latin it means to win someone over: in the Vulgate's First Corinthians the writer became a Jew to the Jews “that I might gain the Jews”,^[5][7] and Augustine uses it of a heretic won for the Catholic Church.^[3] Stelten gives “convert, persuade” among its Church senses.^[8] It lives on in Romanian lucra (“to work”) and in Spanish lograr (“to obtain”) and Portuguese lograr.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of pocketing the sailors' pay.^[2][9]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of winning a name from Africa.^[2][9]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of saving salt.^[2][9]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of winning people over.^[5][9]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of winning a heretic for the Church.^[3][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To acquire as profit, gain, win; to make a profit.^[2][5]
2. To win (something immaterial, such as a name).^[2][5]
3. To gain by economy, save.^[2][5]
4. To be spared (punishment or the like).^[2][7]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To win over, convert.^[5][8]

Word family

• lucrātiō
• lucrātīvus
• lucrātor
• superlucror

Related words

• lucricupīdō
• lucrifaciō
• lucrificābilis
• lucrificō
• lucrifuga
• lucriō
• lucripeta
• lucrius
• lucrōsē
• lucrōsus

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 n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de