ludo

Forms

lūdō (present infinitive lūdere, perfect active lūsī, supine lūsum); third conjugation^[1] Terence has the infinitive lūdier.^[2] Varro has the supine lussum.^[3]

Etymology

According to de Vaan it is inherited from Proto-Italic *loid-e/o- (“to play”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *loid- (“to let go often, play”), an o-grade present with frequentative sense, as the noun lūdus, archaic ⟨loid-⟩, ⟨loed-⟩, shows.^[4][1] The OLD and the TLL compare the Greek gloss Ancient Greek λίζει (lízei, “plays”) in Hesychius,^[3][5][4] and de Vaan also Middle Irish laídid (“impels”).^[4] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus.^[4] Plautus has lūdentī puerō … memordit sīmia, “a monkey bit the boy as he was playing”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Lūdere is “to play, sport”, with an ablative “to play with” a ball or dice (Terence: quom lūdās tesserīs, “when you play at dice”), and “to gamble”;^[3][2][1] dē aliēnō coriō lūdere is to play with another man's skin.^[3][2][1] It is used of amorous play (Catullus), of making merry (Plautus: nunc Bacchae nūllae lūdunt, “now there are no Bacchants revelling”), and of performing in public shows (Livy of bears and elephants in the circus).^[3][1] It also means “to jest, joke” (Cicero), to amuse oneself with something, especially light verse, and to imitate in play.^[3][1]

From play it passes to mockery and deceit: “to make fun of, ridicule” and “to delude, trick”.^[1][2] Church Latin glosses it “to play, sport, frisk, frolic, mimic, mock”.^[6]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it.^[4][7]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: lūdentī puerō.^[3][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence: quom lūdās tesserīs.^[3][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of amorous play.^[3][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of animals in the circus games.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To play, sport;^[3][2][1][6] to play (with a ball, dice).^[3]
2. To gamble.^[3]
3. To sport amorously.^[3][1]
4. To make merry, frolic.^[3][1][6]
5. To perform (in public shows).^[3]
6. To jest, joke; to amuse oneself (with), especially by writing light verse.^[3][1]
7. To mimic, imitate in play.^[1][6]
8. To mock, ridicule; to delude, trick.^[1][2][6]

Word family

• ablūdō
• allūdō
• collūdō
• dēlūdō
• ēlūdō
• illūdō
• interludo
• lūdibundus
• lūdicrum
• lūdiō
• lūsiō
• lūsitō

Related words

• lūdus
• lūdibrium
• English ludicrous

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de