lacuna

English

WOTD – 30 July 2008

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 terms: fossa, fovea, fissure, sulcus, cleft, vallecula

   1. (microscopy) A space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light.
2. A small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "Our young friend makes up for many obvious mental lacunæ by some measure of primitive common sense," remarked Challenger.

   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^[1], →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

• gap
• hiatus

Derived terms

• lacunal
• lacunar
• lacunary
• lacunate
• lacunose

Translations

opening, pit, depression

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 腔隙 (zh) (qiāngxì)

• Finnish: aukko (fi) (same word for small and large openings)
• Ido: lakuno (io)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: kelên (ku) f

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lakune m

  Nynorsk: lakune m or f

• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

space between cells

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 腔隙 (zh) (qiāngxì)

• Finnish: lakuuni
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

absent part in a book

• Bulgarian: пропуск (bg) (propusk) ((в текст))
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 缺文 (quēwén)

• Dutch: lacune (nl) f
• Finnish: aukko (fi)
• Greek: κενό (el) n (kenó), χάσμα (el) n (chásma)
• Latin: lacūna (la) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lakune m

  Nynorsk: lakune m or f

• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: lakun (sv) c

language gap

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 詞彙空缺 / 词汇空缺 (cíhuì kòngquē)

• Dutch: taalhiaat n
• Finnish: leksikaalinen aukko
• German: lexikalische Lücke f
• Greek: κενό (el) n (kenó)
• Occitan: lacuna lexicala f
• Spanish: vacío léxico m, laguna léxica f
• Swedish: lexikal lucka c

Further reading

• “lacuna”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “lacuna”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• canula

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

• cunetta

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• alcuna, lucana

Latin

Alternative forms

• lucūna

Etymology

According to Alfred Ernout and Antoine Meillet, 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

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɫaˈkuː.na]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [laˈkuː.na]

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

• lacūnātūra

Derived terms

• lacūnar, lacūnarium
• lacūnārius
• lacūnō
• lacūnōsus

Related terms

• lacūnātūra

Descendants

Descendants

• Asturian: llaguna
• Catalan: llacuna
• → English: lacuna
• → French: lacune
  • → Dutch: lacune
  • → English: lacune
  • → Romanian: lacună
• Galician: lagoa
• Italian: laguna
  • → French: lagune
    • → Danish: lagune
    • → Dutch: lagune
    • → English: lagoon
  • → Portuguese: laguna
  • → Romanian: lagună
• → Italian: lacuna
• Occitan: lòna, lagua, laguna
• Portuguese: lagoa, → lacuna
• → Russian: лакуна (lakuna)
• Spanish: laguna
• Venetan: łaguna

References

• “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^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lacūna. Compare the inherited lagoa and laguna.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /laˈkũ.nɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /laˈkũ.nɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /laˈku.na/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /lɐˈku.nɐ/

• Hyphenation: la‧cu‧na

Noun

lacuna f (plural lacunas)

1. hiatus (gap in a series)

   Synonym: hiato

2. blank (space to be filled in)

Related terms

• lagoa

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [laˈkuna]

Noun

lacuna f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of lacună