luctificus

Forms

lūctificus (feminine lūctifica, neuter lūctificum, comparative lūctificior, superlative lūctificissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lūctus (“grief, mourning”) + -ficus.^[2][1] The TLL derives it from the noun and faciō (“to make”).^[3] The noun belongs to lūgeō (“to mourn”), whose root is disputed: de Vaan reports the common connection with Proto-Indo-European *lug- (“to break”), and an alternative one with Proto-Indo-European *loug-eie- (“to swallow, gasp”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in a verse fragment Cicero quotes in the Tusculan Disputations, in which Prometheus speaks of an old lūctifica clādēs, a grievous disaster, fixed in his body; some attribute the lines to Accius.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that it is poetic, except in Ammianus Marcellinus, who used it in prose for the sake of rhythm.^[3] Virgil calls the Fury Allecto lūctifica, and Seneca, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Valerius Flaccus and Statius use it of baleful powers, winds, the sun and sounds;^[3][5] Valerius Flaccus has the neuter as an adverb, of a trumpet sounding mournfully.^[6][7] In Ammianus it describes a region always the cause of trouble and bloodshed and slaughters that caused grief.^[5]

Medieval British writers used it both for what causes grief and, passively, for people afflicted with grief.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero quotes it in a verse fragment.^[2][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil calls Allecto lūctifica.^[6][9]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it in prose.^[3][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing sorrow; dire, calamitous, baleful.^[2][6]
2. (Medieval Latin) Afflicted with grief, sorrowful.^[8]

Usage notes

Ammianus Marcellinus used it in place of the more usual lūctuōsus, which he also uses.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de