lux

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɫuːks]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈluks]^[1]

Forms

lūx f (genitive lūcis); third declension^[1] In old phrases such as primo luci it is masculine, and Plautus usually treats it as masculine.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *louk- (“light”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light”), an old root noun.^[4][1] From the same root come lūceō “to shine” and lūmen “light”.^[4][1]

Cognate with Hittite lukk- (“to dawn”), Sanskrit रुच् (rúc-, “light”), Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “white, bright”) and English light.^[4][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the Laws of the Twelve Tables.^[4][5] Ennius writes of the horses of the Sun breathing out light from their nostrils.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant light, as Cicero contrasts the light of the sun with that of lamps, and especially daylight, luce clarius was “clearer than day”.^[2][6] It meant the day as opposed to night, a particular day, as Accius' “last day”, and the light of life, so that to give someone light was to give them life.^[2]

It was used for the gleam of gems, for eyesight, for light shed on a question, and for splendour or a shining example.^[2] It also meant hope or deliverance, as when Cicero says one man's courage brought light to the state.^[2] Medieval writers called God auctor lucis, “the author of light”, and philosophers treated light as a substance.^[7] It survives as Italian and Romanian luce and Spanish and Portuguese luz.^[1] English lucid comes from its derivative lucidus.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use it.^[5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it for the light of the sun.^[2][5]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it for a day.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero contrasts sunlight and lamplight.^[2][5]
• 1590s – English lucid is first recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Light.^[2][3]
2. Daylight; the light of day.^[2][1]
3. A day.^[2][1]
4. The light of life, life.^[2][1]
5. Gleam, brightness.^[2]
6. Eyesight.^[2][1]
7. Enlightenment, clarification.^[2][1]
8. Splendour, distinction.^[2][1]
9. Hope, deliverance.^[2]

Word family

• collūcō
• interlūcō
• Lūcānus
• lucerna
• lūcifer
• lucificus
• lucifluus
• lucinus
• luciparens
• lucipetus
• lucisator
• lūculentus

Related words

• luceo
• lūmen
• lūcus
• lūna
• English lucid
• English lucent

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes lumen, a body that gives light, from lux, the light that streams from it, citing Cicero's lamp whose lumen is lost in the lux of the sun.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper