Etymologically
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luctuosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫuːk.tuˈoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [luk.tuˈɔː.s̬us][1]

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

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