perlucidus

Forms

perlucidus (feminine perlucida, neuter perlucidum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled pellūcidus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin perlūceō (“to shine through”) + -idus, as the OLD has it; the TLL takes it as ⟨per-⟩ added to lūcidus (“bright”).^[2][3] Both go back to the family of lūx (“light”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light”), cognate with Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “clear, white”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Persa, of a clear broth, with the spelling pellūcidus;^[2][3] the TLL finds that spelling only there.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means transparent, letting light through,^[2][1] and figuratively clear in meaning, as Vitruvius says of plain thoughts and sentences.^[2] It also means very bright, radiant: Cicero contrasts a dim star with a bright, clear one in the De divinatione.^[2] Döderlein separates the two senses by spelling, perlūcidus “very bright” and pellūcidus “transparent”.^[5] The comparative is found from Cicero and Horace, the superlative only in Hilary.^[3] Stelten glosses it “transparent”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a clear broth.^[2][3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a bright star.^[2][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius, of clear meaning.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Transparent, pellucid; figuratively, clearly intelligible.^[2][1][6]
2. Having a clear light, very bright, radiant.^[2]

Word family

• perlūciditās
• perlūcidulus

Related words

• perlūceō
• lūcidus
• lūx
• English pellucid

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de