lychnus

Forms

lychnus m (genitive lychnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λύχνος (lúkhnos, “lamp”).^[2][3][4][5] Köbler sets the Greek word beside Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light, to shine”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Ennius, who in the Annals speaks of the twelve lights of lamps.^[4][5] Ritschl wanted to restore there the old spelling ⟨lucinus⟩, found in glossaries.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a lamp, especially one hung from the ceiling.^[2] Lucretius has hanging lamps and Virgil lamps that hang from golden ceilings.^[3][4] The TLL calls it a word of the higher style: it is found in poetry from Ennius on, and in prose once in Cicero, who contrasts the light of the sun with that of lamps, in what seems to be a proverb.^[4][3] The jurist Pomponius rules that lamps fixed to a house are not part of it, being ornament.^[4]

Christian writers used it in comparisons, and it continued in Medieval Latin, in glossaries and in Hrabanus Maurus.^[4][5][6] The TLL derives Languedoc ⟨legne⟩ from the Greek form.^[4]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it in the Annals.^[4][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has hanging lamps.^[3][4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero contrasts the light of the sun with that of lamps.^[3][4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil describes lamps hung from golden ceilings.^[3][4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lamp, a light, especially one hanging from a ceiling.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• bilychnis

Related words

• lucerna

Usage notes

Manuscripts also write it lychinus, lichinus and lichnus.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson