Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈluːk.sus/, [ˈɫ̪uːks̠ʊs̠] or IPA(key): /ˈluk.sus/, [ˈɫ̪ʊks̠ʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈluk.sus/, [ˈluksus]
- De Vaan reconstructs the stem vowel as short, despite noting that this would be difficult to explain as the word meets the conditions for Lachmann's law to apply. In contrast, Bennett marks it long, appealing to Romance descendants,[1] although Bennett also gives luxus as an example of a word where it is difficult to decide whether the forms encountered in Romance are popular or learned.[2]
Etymology 1
Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“bend, twist”) (whence also luctor (“wrestle”)). De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *lug-so-s and Proto-Italic *luksos and assumes an absence of Lachmann's lengthening.[3] Cognate with Sanskrit रुग्ण (rugṇá, “bent, broken”), Ancient Greek λύγος (lúgos, “twig, withe”) and λοξός (loxós, “slanting, crosswise”), Lithuanian lugnas, Old Norse lykna.
References
Bennett, Charles E. (1907) The Latin Language: a historical outline of its sounds, inflections, and syntax, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, page 60 Bennett, Charles E. (1907) The Latin Language: a historical outline of its sounds, inflections, and syntax, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, page 39 De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “luxus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 356
Further reading
- “luxus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “luxus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- luxus 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)
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to pass one's life in luxury and idleness: per luxum et ignaviam aetatem agere
