ludifico

Forms

lūdificō (present infinitive lūdificāre, perfect active lūdificāvī, supine lūdificātum); first conjugation^[1] There is also a deponent lūdificor.^[2] Plautus has the archaic passive infinitive lūdificārier.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin lūdus (“game, sport”) + -ficō (“making”), “to make sport of”.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it often: in the Bacchides someone boasts how neatly he has fooled his master, and in the Captivi someone sees that he is being made a fool of.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Beside Plautus, Lewis & Short cite Lucretius, and Cicero has it once, used absolutely, of hiding and evading for a long time.^[3] The ancient grammarians discussed whether the active or the deponent form was correct.^[2] From it come lūdificātiō and lūdificātus.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of making a fool of someone.^[3][2]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has the verb.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of evading by delay.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make sport of, make a fool of, mock.^[3][1]
2. To delude, deceive; used absolutely, to put off by evasion.^[3]

Word family

• lūdificātiō
• lūdificātus

Related words

• lūdus
• lūdō
• faciō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de