ludia

Latin

FWOTD – 6 March 2023

Etymology

From lūdius (“gladiator; performer”) +‎ -a (suffix forming feminine counterparts to masculine nouns), from the root of lūdus (“game, sport, play”) and lūdō (“to play, to appear in a public game”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈluː.di.a/, [ˈɫ̪uːd̪iä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈlu.di.a/, [ˈluːd̪iä]

Noun

lūdia f (genitive lūdiae, masculine lūdius); first declension

1. an actress, a female dancer
2. a gladiator's wife or mistress
   • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martial, Epigrammata 5.24.10:

     Hermes [gladiator], cura laborque ludiarum

     Hermes [the gladiator] is the darling and heart-throb of the gladiators' women

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	lūdia	lūdiae
genitive	lūdiae	lūdiārum
dative	lūdiae	lūdiīs
accusative	lūdiam	lūdiās
ablative	lūdiā	lūdiīs
vocative	lūdia	lūdiae

References

• “ludia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ludia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers