lupanar

Forms

lupānar n (genitive lupānāris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lupa (“she-wolf; prostitute”),^[2][3][4] with an ending the OLD and the TLL compare with Bacchānal from Baccha.^[2][3] Wiktionary explains it as a shortening of an earlier neuter adjective ⟨*lupānāre⟩, built with the suffixes -ānus and -āris.^[1] That noun is the feminine of lupus (“wolf”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who in the Bacchides speaks of a man who lies at table in a brothel.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Catullus uses it as a term of abuse.^[6][5] Petronius, Quintilian and Juvenal use it of a brothel,^[6][5] and Ammianus Marcellinus applies it to an emperor's harem.^[8] The TLL also records a form lupānārium.^[3] In British medieval Latin it was still a brothel or “stew”, spelled also ⟨lupinar⟩ and ⟨lupaner⟩, and by association with “stew” it once named a fishpond.^[9] English lupanar was borrowed from it.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Bacchides.^[5][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it as a term of abuse.^[5][7]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it.^[6][7]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of an emperor's harem.^[8][7]
• 1598 – A survey of Cobham uses it of a fishpond.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A brothel.^[2][6]
2. (term of abuse) A whore.^[6][5]
3. (Late Latin) A harem.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A fishpond, stew.^[9]

Related words

• lupa
• lupus
• English lupanar

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 c d e f 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c 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