luscinia

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ɫʊsˈkɪ.ni.a]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [luʃˈʃiː.ni.a]^[1]

Forms

luscinia f (genitive lusciniae); first declension^[1] A masculine luscinius is also found.^[2][3] Medieval Latin also writes lucinia.^[4]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[5][2][6] It is perhaps from Latin luscus (“one-eyed, half-blind”) + canō (“to sing”), by haplology from *luscicinia (“singing in the twilight”);^[2][6][7] de Vaan, who reads it as “singing in the night” or “blind singer”, calls this speculative and suggests instead a base in an n-stem “blind one”.^[5] He notes that the derivatives of the adjective point to a lost verb meaning “to be night-blind”, and traces it to Proto-Italic *luk-sko- (“with partial sight”).^[5] The TLL objects that the sense of twilight can hardly be got from the first part.^[8] Lewis and Short followed an older view connecting it with clueō (“to be famous”) and Ancient Greek κλύω (klúō, “to hear”).^[3]

Ancient grammarians derived it from lūx (“light”): Isidore of Seville says the bird is named because its song announces the dawn, as if it were lucinia.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Horace's Satires, of men who used to lunch on nightingales bought at great cost (luscinias soliti impenso prandere coemptas).^[3][10][5]

Semantic evolution

Phaedrus and Seneca use a masculine luscinius,^[3] and Pliny the Elder gives a long account of the bird's song.^[3][10] Petronius, Pliny the Younger and Apuleius also have the word.^[10][11] The diminutive lusciniola is older, attested from Plautus.^[5]

In British medieval Latin it was glossed with the Old English name of the nightingale, and was also used for the goldfinch; the spelling lucinia follows Isidore's explanation, and Osbern of Gloucester defines it as a small bird singing in the light.^[4] Conte compares the Italian word usignolo.^[11]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions nightingales as a costly dish.^[3][6]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses the masculine luscinius.^[3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the bird.^[3][10][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore derives the name from lux.^[9][6]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it in his riddles.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The nightingale.^[2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) The goldfinch.^[4]

Word family

• lusciniola
• luscinius

Related words

• luscus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d 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
5. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
10. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
11. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier