lura

Forms

lūra f (genitive lūrae); first declension^[1] Lewis & Short also give the spelling lōra.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[3][4][5] Lewis & Short derived it from the same root as lōrum “thong”, taking it to mean first the thong that closed a leather bag.^[2] The TLL considers it unlikely that dialectal French loure (“bagpipe”) and Italian lora (“funnel”) and lura of northern Italian dialects belong here.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is known from Paulus' epitome of Festus, which explains it as the mouth of a leather sack or wineskin and derives from it lurcōnēs, men with a capacious gullet who eat up their property.^[3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short and Köbler also cite Ausonius for the sense “leather sack”,^[2][5] but the TLL regards that reading as a mistaken restoration of the text.^[4] Wiktionary gives the senses “sack, bag” and, figuratively, “belly, paunch”.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mouth of a leather sack or wineskin.^[3][4][2]
2. A leather sack, a bag.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) The belly, paunch.^[1]

Related words

• lurcō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de