lutum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɫʊ.tũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈluː.tum]^[1]

Forms

lutum n (genitive lutī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *luto-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *l(H)u-to- (“dirt”).^[2] Cognate with Old Irish loth (“dirt”), Ancient Greek λῦμα (lûma, “dirty water, filth”), Albanian lym (“slime, mud”) and Lithuanian liutynas (“loam pit”).^[2][1] lustrum “wallow, bog” is from the same base, and the OLD connects polluō “to defile”.^[2][3] Isidore thought it was named by contrast, because it is not clean, as everything washed (lōtum) is.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus, who speaks of plastering a house with much clay.^[2][5][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was mud or mire, the dirt of the streets in Döderlein's distinction from līmus “river mud” and caenum “filth”.^[3][6] It was clay used for building and modelling, as Caesar's men covered a roof with bricks and clay, and a term of abuse, as Catullus' ō lutum, lupānar.^[3] Proverbially in lutō haerēre was to be stuck in a difficult spot and prō lutō esse to be dirt cheap.^[3]

It survives in Italian loto, Spanish lodo, Portuguese lodo and Romanian lut “clay”.^[1] Alchemists' lutum sapientiae and English lute “clay for sealing” came from it.^[1][5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of plastering with clay.^[3][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of earth for making clay.^[3][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it as a term of abuse.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Mud, mire, dirt.^[3]
2. Clay (for building or modelling).^[3]
3. (term of abuse) Filth, scum.^[3]
4. (proverbial) in lutō haerēre, to be in difficulties, prō lutō esse, to be as cheap as dirt.^[3]

Word family

• lustrum
• lutāmentum
• lutārius
• lutēnsis
• lutēscō
• lutitō
• lutō
• lutōsus
• lutulentus

Related words

• polluō
• līmus
• caenum

Usage notes

Lūtum (long ū) is a different word, the dye plant weld and the yellow colour it gives, as in Virgil's fleeces dyed with saffron weld; its origin is unclear.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper