luminare

Forms

lūmināre n (genitive lūmināris); third declension^[1] A second-declension form lūminārium also occurs, made from the plural lūmināria.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin lūmen (“light”) + -āris.^[3][1] The TLL likewise derives it from ⟨lūmen⟩ and compares the adjective lūmināris.^[2] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of lūx “light”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first occurrence is in Cato's treatise on agriculture, among the things the builder of a farmhouse is to make; the OLD, de Vaan and Conte take the word there as “lamp”,^[3][4][5] while Lewis & Short, Gaffiot and the TLL read it as a window or opening that lets in light.^[6][7][2]

Semantic evolution

Apart from Cato, the TLL finds it only from the Itala and Tertullian on, mostly in the plural.^[2] The Bible translations made it the word for the heavenly bodies, the “two great lights” of Genesis,^[6][7] and for the lamps burned in the Jewish temple and in Christian churches.^[6][2]

Medieval Latin used it for a lamp or candle, the light they gave, the lighting of a church as a service owed to it, a taper, and figuratively a guiding star.^[8][9] Through Old French it gave English luminary.^[10]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses the plural lūmināria in his instructions for building a farmhouse.^[3][2][11]
• after AD 220 – It occurs in the Itala, the Old Latin Bible.^[2][11]
• 390–406 – The Vulgate calls the sun and the moon duo lūmināria magna, “two great lights”.^[6][11]
• c. 383–419/420 – Jerome writes of lamps being lit (accenduntur lūmināria).^[6][11]
• mid-15th century – English borrows luminary, “lamp, source of light”, through Old French.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An opening that lets in light, a window or window shutter.^[2][6][7]
2. A lamp (the OLD's reading of Cato).^[3][5]
3. (Late Latin) A luminary, a heavenly body.^[6][7]
4. (Late Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin) A light or lamp burned in the temple or in a church.^[6][2][12]
5. (Medieval Latin) A lamp or candle; the light of a lamp, lighting.^[9][8]
6. (Medieval Latin) The lighting of a church as a service; a taper.^[8]
7. (Medieval Latin, figurative) A shining light, a guiding star.^[8]

Related words

• lūmen
• lūminō
• lūminōsus
• English luminary

Usage notes

Lewis & Short also cite lūminārium aedium from a letter of Cicero to Atticus, but the TLL considers the passage doubtful, the words there probably hiding the name of a house.^[6][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
12. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson