lugeo

Forms

lūgeō (present infinitive lūgēre, perfect active lūxī, supine lūctum); second conjugation^[1] Catullus has the syncopated lūxtī for lūxistī.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[4] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *loug-eje- and Proto-Indo-European *loug-eie- (“to swallow, gasp”), comparing Ancient Greek λύζω (lúzō, “to hiccup, sob”), λυγμός (lugmós, “hiccup, sobbing”) and Old Irish loingid (“eats”): mourning would have been named from sobbing.^[4] The OLD and Wiktionary instead compare Ancient Greek λευγαλέος (leugaléos, “wretched”) and λυγρός (lugrós, “mournful”), and Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *lewǵ- (“to break, injure”), with a shift to “be in pain”, cognate with Sanskrit रुजति (rujáti, “breaks”) and Lithuanian láužti (“to break”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4] The epitaph of Plautus says that after his death Comedy mourns (Cōmoedia lūget).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Used without an object it is to mourn or grieve, and especially to be in formal mourning: Livy says that after Cannae mourners could not perform the rites, and no matron was without mourning.^[2] With an object it is to bewail or lament a person or event (Cicero: he grieved at the death of enemies), or, with an accusative and infinitive, to lament that something happened.^[2] Lewis & Short give plōrō as a near-synonym.^[3] Suetonius records it as the word for the cry of a kite.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “lament, bewail, grieve, mourn over”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of grieving over a death.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of public mourning after Cannae.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mourn, grieve, lament; to be in mourning.^[2][5]
2. (transitive) To bewail, mourn over (a person or event).^[2][1]
3. (of a kite) To cry.^[2]

Word family

• collūgeō
• ēlūgeō
• lūctus
• lūgubris
• prōlūgeō
• sublūgeō

References

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