lanx

lanx

English

Etymology

    Borrowed from Latin lanx.

    Noun

    lanx (plural lances)

    1. (historical) A platter or dish for serving food in Ancient Rome.

    Latin

    Etymology

    Compare Ancient Greek λέκος (lékos, dish, pan), λεκάνη (lekánē, basin, dish) (whence English lecanomancy). Walde and Hoffmann, and Pokorny, suppose these words inherited from PIE and connected with words meaning "crooked", such as Latin licinus (bent upward), luxus (dislocated); the root Pokorny assigns[1] is, in updated reconstruction, Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l- (to bend, to turn). De Vaan objects on phonological and semantic grounds (plates are not crooked) and favours Ernout and Meillet's assumption that Greek and Latin instead share a Mediterranean cultural loanword from substrate languages.[2]

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    lanx f (genitive lancis); third declension

    1. dish, platter, plate
    2. scalepan

    Declension

    Third-declension noun.

    singular plural
    nominative lanx lancēs
    genitive lancis lancum
    dative lancī lancibus
    accusative lancem lancēs
    ablative lance lancibus
    vocative lanx lancēs

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    • Italian: lance

    References

    1. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), “ĕl-ĕq-”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, pages 308-309
    2. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “lanx”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 326

    Further reading

    • lanx”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
    • lanx”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • lanx”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
    • lanx”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • lanx”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin