luctuosus

Forms

lūctuōsus (feminine lūctuōsa, neuter lūctuōsum, comparative lūctuōsior, superlative lūctuōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lūctus (“grief, mourning”) + -ōsus.^[2][3][1] The noun is from lūgeō (“to mourn”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *loug-eje-; de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *loug-eie- (“to swallow, gasp”), though the root is disputed.^[4] On that view it is cognate with Ancient Greek λύζω (lúzō, “to hiccup, sob”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[5] who writes that it is grievous to be handed over to another with one's goods, more grievous to an enemy.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means causing sorrow, grievous or calamitous, as in Cicero's “O that day, so grievous for the state”.^[2][6] It also means sorrowful or mournful, as in Cicero's “the wretched and mournful prayers of my brother”, and in Horace.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “sorrowful, sad, mournful”.^[7] In medieval law hereditas luctuosa is an inheritance that passes to the parents on the death of their child.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a grievous fate and of mournful prayers.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace.^[2][5]
• Middle Ages – hereditas luctuosa, an inheritance on a child's death.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing sorrow, grievous, calamitous.^[2][6][1]
2. Sorrowful, mournful.^[2][6][1]

Word family

• perluctuōsus

Related words

• lūctus
• lūgeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill