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lacuna

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English

WOTD – 30 July 2008
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lacūna (“a ditch, pit; a hollow, cavity; a gap, defect”). Doublet of lacune and lagoon.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ləˈk(j)uː.nə/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːnə

Noun

lacuna (plural lacunae or (obsolete) lacunæ or lacunas)

  1. (particularly anatomy) A small opening; a small pit or depression, especially in bone.
    Coordinate term: fovea
    1. (microscopy) A space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light.
  2. A small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.
    1. An absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing, often referring to an ancient manuscript or similar.
      Long lacunae in this inscription make interpretation difficult.
    2. (figurative) Any gap, break, hole, or lack in a set of things; something missing.
      • 2008 March 23, Elizabeth Day, “The great French love affair with la vie anglaise”, in The Observer‎[2], →ISSN:
        For Beatrice Nutter, there will always be conspicuous lacunae in our mutual understanding, but after almost 30 years here, the anomalies now delight rather than confound her.
      • 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, volume 41, number 7, →DOI, page 577:
        If the researcher cannot adequately hear a specific conversation due to its low volume or other acoustic interference, then this data point can be passed over with the understanding that such lacunae will be randomly distributed over the data collecting period.
    3. (linguistics, translation studies) A language gap, which occurs when there is no direct translation in the target language for a lexical term found in the source language.
      Synonym: anisomorphism
      Hyponyms: accidental gap, lexical gap

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lacūna. Compare the inherited doublet laguna.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /laˈku.na/
  • Rhymes: -una
  • Hyphenation: la‧cù‧na

Noun

lacuna f (plural lacune)

  1. gap
  2. blank (space)
  3. lapse (of memory)

Derived terms

Further reading

  • lacuna in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

According to Alfred Ernout and Antoine Meillet, [1] from the feminine substantivation of an unattested adjectival form *lacūnus (pertaining to a lake, cistern), itself from lacus (“a lake, pond; a basin, tank, cistern”) +‎ -nus (see -īnus). For the u-stem-appended -nus adjectival suffix compare opportūnus and importūnus, from portus. For its substantivation, probably from the clipping of the set-phrase "lacuna aqua" (cistern water), compare urīna with the same development.

Pronunciation

Noun

lacūna f (genitive lacūnae); first declension

  1. (literal, chiefly poetic) a hole, pit, ditch; (especially) a pool, pond
    • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 1.117:
       […], unde cavae tepido sudant umore lacunae.
       […], whence the great hollows (the cavity of the torrent) sweat of a tepid moisture.
    1. (generally) an opening, cavity, hollow, cleft, chasm
      • c. 15 BCE, Vitruvius, De architectura 7.1.4:
         […], ut ne habeant lacunas nec extantes tumulos, […]
         […], in such a way that they bear no holes nor protruding parts, […]
  2. (figurative, rare, Classical Latin) a gap, void, defect, want, loss
    • c. 177 CE, Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 1.3.23:
       […], minimaque illa labes et quasi lacuna famae munimentis partarum amico utilitatium solidatur.
       […] and this unimportant fault, a simple defect of good reputation is repaid (made firm again) by the excuse of new-found circumstances to help a friend.

Inflection

First-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative lacūna lacūnae
genitive lacūnae lacūnārum
dative lacūnae lacūnīs
accusative lacūnam lacūnās
ablative lacūnā lacūnīs
vocative lacūna lacūnae

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

lacūna

References

  1. ^ Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “lacus”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎[1] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 337
  • “lacuna”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “lacuna”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • lacuna 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)
  • lacuna in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • “lacuna”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • lacuna in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lacūna.[1][2] Compare the inherited lagoa and laguna.

Pronunciation

 

  • Hyphenation: la‧cu‧na

Noun

lacuna f (plural lacunas)

  1. hiatus (gap in a series)
    Synonym: hiato
  2. blank (space to be filled in)

References

  1. ^ “lacuna”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024
  2. ^ “lacuna”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024

Romanian

Pronunciation

Noun

lacuna f

  1. definite nominative/accusative singular of lacună
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