Etymologically
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luridus

Etymology and origin of the Latin word luridus

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɫuː.rɪ.dʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈluː.ri.dus][1]

Forms

lūridus (feminine lūrida, neuter lūridum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The source is very uncertain.[2][3] Schrijver connects it with Welsh words for light and the moon such as Welsh lloer (“moon”), from *le/ous-, while Nussbaum relates it to līvidus “bluish”.[2][4] Georges and Etymonline compare Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, “pale green”).[5][4] It goes with lūror “sallowness”, which de Vaan takes to be derived from the adjective.[2][1] Isidore of Seville derived it from lōrum “strap”, as of skin the colour of leather.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is attested from Plautus onwards,[2][6] who describes a body “spotted with livid blotches”.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

It described a sickly yellow or ghastly pale colour, of skin, teeth, bile and the sun or moon seen through haze, and Festus explains it as “pale beyond measure”.[9][7] Horace calls the god of the underworld luridus Orcus.[7] Poets also used it in a causative sense, of what makes pale, such as horror, aconite and death.[7][5]

The TLL notes that it is mainly poetic.[3] It survives in Italian lordo “dirty”,[3][1] and English borrowed it as English lurid in the 1650s, first meaning “pale, wan”.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of livid blotches.[7][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.[8][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace writes of luridus Orcus and yellowed teeth.[7][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of pallor and of aconite.[7][6]
  • 1650s – English borrows it as English lurid.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Sickly yellow, sallow, wan, ghastly pale.[9][7]
  2. (poetic) Making pale, ghastly.[7][5]

Word family

  • luridatus
  • obluridus
  • lurdus
  • lūreō
  • lūror
  • līvidus
  • English lurid

References

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

“Luridus.” Etymologically, 10 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/luridus. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

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