lumino

Forms

lūminō (present infinitive lūmināre, perfect active lūmināvī, supine lūminātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lūmen (“light”) + -ō.^[2][1] According to the TLL it was formed from ⟨lūmen⟩ after the much older and commoner illūminō, which appears already in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is a verse inscription of AD 134 on the statue of Memnon, which says that kindly day, brought forth from the Ocean, “lights up” (lūminat) the hour.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It remained much rarer than illūminō and is mostly found in late authors:^[3] Apuleius has tu lūminās sōlem, “you light up the sun”,^[4][2] Caelius Aurelianus a place lit by windows, and Martianus Capella an earth bright with flowers.^[4][5] Apuleius' male lūminātus means “short-sighted”, from the sense “to give eyesight”.^[5][6]

In Medieval Latin it also meant “to provide lighting”.^[7] Through Old French luminer it gave Middle English luminen, the source of English limn.^[8]

Timeline

• AD 134 – A verse inscription on the statue of Memnon uses it of daylight.^[3][2]
• c. 125–175 – Apuleius writes tu lūminās sōlem, “you light up the sun”.^[2][4][9]
• after 220 – The Itala, the Old Latin Bible, has the world “lit with clear light” in the Book of Wisdom.^[3][9]
• 5th century – Caelius Aurelianus speaks of a place lit by windows.^[4][9]
• late 14th century – Middle English luminen “to illuminate manuscripts” is borrowed through Old French.^[8]
• 1620s – English luminate is formed from its participle.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To illuminate, light up, brighten.^[2][4][5]
2. (participle) male lūminātus: having poor sight, short-sighted.^[5][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) To provide lighting.^[7]

Related words

• lūmen
• illūminō
• lūmināre
• English limn
• English luminate

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de