landica

Latin

Etymology

Probably for *glandīca, from glāns (“acorn”) +‎ -īcus.^[1][2] Less probably related to lateō (“I am concealed”). Sense 2 and 3 seem to have something to do with a semantic parallel to ἐσχάρα (eskhára),^[3] which is affirmed by the gloss landīca – εσχαρίδι<ο>ν.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /lanˈdiː.ka/, [ɫ̪än̪ˈd̪iːkä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /lanˈdi.ka/, [län̪ˈd̪iːkä]

Noun

landīca f (genitive landīcae); first declension

1. (vulgar slang, anatomy) clitoris
   • c. 100 CE, anonymous, Carmina Priapea 78, (Choliambic meter):

     At dī deaeque dentibus tuīs ēscam
     negent, amīcae cunnilinge vīcīnae,
     per quem puella fortis ante nec mendāx
     et quae solēbat impigrō celer passū
     ad nōs venīre, nunc misella landīcae
     vix posse jūrat ambulāre prae fossīs.

   • 41 BCE, anonymous, Inscription on a leaden sling-bullet , (CIL XI 6721):

     PETO [LA]NDICAM FVLVIAE

2. (Late Latin) gridiron

   Synonym: crāticula

3. (Late Latin) censer

   Synonym: tūribulum

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	landīca	landīcae
genitive	landīcae	landīcārum
dative	landīcae	landīcīs
accusative	landīcam	landīcās
ablative	landīcā	landīcīs
vocative	landīca	landīcae

Derived terms

• landīcōsus

Descendants

• Old French: landie
• Romanian: lindic

References

• “landica”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• landica 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)
• landica in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• landica in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung

1. Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1938) “landica”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume 1, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 758
2. Edwin W. Fay (1907): Greek and Latin Word Studies. In: The Classical Quarterly 1/1, pp. 13-14
3. “ἐσχάρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press