lucus

Latin

Etymology

From Old Latin loucos, from Proto-Italic *loukos, from Proto-Indo-European *lowk-ó-s (“open space, clearing”), which is derived from the root *lewk- (“bright”). Cognates include Proto-Germanic *lauhaz (“clearing”), Sanskrit लोक (loka, “free space, world”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈluː.kus/, [ˈɫ̪uːkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈlu.kus/, [ˈluːkus]

Noun

lūcus m (genitive lūcī); second declension

1. A grove sacred to a deity
2. (poetic) a wood

Declension

Second-declension noun, with locative.

	singular	plural
nominative	lūcus	lūcī
genitive	lūcī	lūcōrum
dative	lūcō	lūcīs
accusative	lūcum	lūcōs
ablative	lūcō	lūcīs
vocative	lūce	lūcī
locative	lūcī	lūcīs

Locative used in the sense "in the grove".

Derived terms

• lūcar

Descendants

• Catalan: Lluc (toponym)
• Corsican: lucu
• Gascon: luc, luga
• Old French: luz (Champagne)
• Italian: luco, -luco, Lugo
• Old Galician-Portuguese: Lugo (toponym)
  • Galician: Lugo
  • Portuguese: Lugo
• Sardinian: luo (Barbagia)
• → Basque: luku
• → Spanish: luco

References

• “lucus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lucus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lucus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• lucus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) in full daylight: luce (luci)
    
• “lucus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• Lewis & Short A Latin Dictionary
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “lūcus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 5: J L, page 441