lux

Forms

lux n (rare plural luxuri)^[1][2] It was also spelled lucs: Negruzzi wrote of „ciocoismul, lucsul şi corupția” “upstart greed, luxury and corruption”.^[1][2] Early 19th-century texts have luxus: „Din oraşe iese şi naşte luxusul” “from the towns luxury comes forth”, wrote Mumuleanu.^[1] Rare old variants are lus and lăxus.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French luxe, together with the Latin luxus.^[3][1][2][4] Ciorănescu and Tiktin name only the French word.^[5][6]

French borrowed the word in 1607 from the Latin noun, which meant “excess in the way of living, splendour, pomp”; it is perhaps the noun of the like-sounding adjective meaning “dislocated”, so that it first meant growing crooked and then growing to excess.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1777, has the plural lucsuri in the sense “ornaments, jewellery”, in a document quoted by Furnică: „lucsuri de aur” “gold trinkets”.^[1][2] A text of 1820 has luxus in the sense of costly display, and Tiktin dates lux to 1824.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

Early writers explained the new word: Golescu wrote that it covers all kinds of needless spending, and a newspaper of 1829 glossed it as spending on shiny things.^[1] Negulici in 1848 defined it as great costliness in clothes, furniture and food.^[8] The sense “ornament” fell out of use.^[1]

From “costly display” come de lux “luxury, high-quality”, as in magazin de lux, and a face lux “to live or dress extravagantly”.^[3][2] A-și permite luxul “to allow oneself the luxury” extends it to anything not strictly needed.^[1] Figuratively it means abundance, as in cu lux de amănunte “in great detail”.^[2][9] Regionally, from mașină de lux, it came to mean a car or a taxi.^[1][2]

Timeline

• 1777 – lucsuri “gold ornaments” in a document quoted by Furnică.^[1][2]
• 1820 – luxus in a document published by Iorga.^[1]
• 1824 – lux.^[6]
• 1829 – luxul glossed as spending on shiny things, in the Curierul românesc.^[1]
• 1848 – лꙋкs in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. luxury: a way of life that is far too costly.^[3][2]
2. Pomp, splendour, elegance: o casă mobilată cu lux.^[3][2]
3. de lux: very comfortable or elegant and not strictly necessary; of the best quality; selling refined goods.^[3][2]
4. (figurative) Abundance, profusion: cu lux de amănunte “in great detail”.^[2][9]
5. (regional) A car; a taxi.^[1][2]

Related words

• luxos
• Latin luxus

Usage notes

A face lux means to live in costly style, and especially to dress very expensively.^[3][2] A separate word lux (plural lucși), borrowed from French lux, is the unit of illuminance, one lumen spread over one square metre; it is recorded from 1949.^[3][2][10] An old, rare lux “light”, taken from Latin lux, occurs in C. A. Rosetti.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lux
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1410
3. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 607
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. lux
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. lux
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lux
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. lux
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. lux
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org