leno Latin · revision 5971

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=Plautus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈɫeː.noː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈlɛː.no]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''lēnō''' ''m'' (genitive lēnōnis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is unknown.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Walde and Hofmann and Leumann took the feminine [[lēna]] “bawd” as older, but de Vaan sees no sign of this in the texts.^(de Vaan 2008) He suggests the different suffixes may continue an n-stem *lēn- “one who lets”, from *leh₁-ōn, perhaps the same stem as in [[lēnis]] “gentle”.^(de Vaan 2008) Lewis and Short derived it from [[lēniō]] “to soothe”.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan dates it from Plautus, whose perjured pimp is a stock figure.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It meant a brothel-keeper, procurer, pimp, a dealer in slave girls and a stock character of Roman comedy, as Plautus' ''periūrus lēnō'' and the pimp who sold a girl to a Macedonian soldier for twenty minae.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016) Figuratively it was a go-between.^(Gaffiot 2016)

+

+ In Medieval Latin it meant a bawd, glossed as one who procures girls for a brothel.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus' comedies feature the pimp.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A brothel-keeper, [[m|en|pimp]], procurer.^(OLD 2012)

+ # A go-between.^(Gaffiot 2016)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[lēnōcinium]]

+ * [[lēnōcinor]]

+ * [[lēnōnius]]

+ * [[lēnullus]]

+ * [[lēnunculus]]

+ * [[lēna]]

+ * [[lēnōcināmentum]]

+ * [[lēnōnicē]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[lēnis]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The late verb ''lēnāre'' “to pimp, to prostitute” is derived from it.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}