lectus

Latin

Etymology 1

Perfect passive participle of legō (“pick out, select”), with long ē from Lachmann's law.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɫeːk.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈlɛk.tus]

Participle

lēctus (feminine lēcta, neuter lēctum, comparative lēctior, superlative lēctissimus); first/second-declension participle

1. chosen; picked; having been selected
   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 4.441:

     Plūrima lēcta rosa est, sunt et sine nōmine flōrēs.

     They picked many a rose, and flowers without a name.
     (Ovid describes the luxuriant field where Persephone and her attendants picked flowers.)

2. choice; excellent
3. read; having been read (silently)
4. recited; having been recited; having been read out loud

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	lēctus	lēcta	lēctum		lēctī	lēctae	lēcta
genitive	lēctī	lēctae	lēctī		lēctōrum	lēctārum	lēctōrum
dative	lēctō	lēctae	lēctō		lēctīs
accusative	lēctum	lēctam	lēctum		lēctōs	lēctās	lēcta
ablative	lēctō	lēctā	lēctō		lēctīs
vocative	lēcte	lēcta	lēctum		lēctī	lēctae	lēcta

Derived terms

• lēctē

Related terms

• legō

Descendants

• Catalan: llit
• French: lit
• Friulian: let
• Istriot: lito
• Italian: letto
• Sicilian: lettu
• Spanish: lecho

Etymology 2

Derived from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lay”), exact morphology uncertain.

• Perhaps from Proto-Italic *lektos, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰtós.
• Alternatively from Proto-Italic *lektus (an u-stem), from Proto-Indo-European *légʰtus, with a later switch to an o-stem within Latin.

Cognate with Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos) and with Russian лежа́к (ležák) and лежа́нка (ležánka).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɫɛk.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈlɛk.tus]

Noun

lectus m (genitive lectī); second declension

1. (countable) bed (a piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on which to rest or sleep)

   Synonyms: cama, cubīle, strātum, torus

   Hyponym: grabatus

   Puerī sub lectō sunt. ― The boys are under the bed.

   • c. 125 CE – 180 CE, Apuleius, Metamorphoses 2.32:

     mēque statim […] lectō simul et somnō trādidī.

     And immediately I gave myself simultaneously to both bed and sleep.

2. couch; sofa

   Synonyms: cubīle, pulvinar, strātum, torus

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	lectus	lectī
genitive	lectī	lectōrum
dative	lectō	lectīs
accusative	lectum	lectōs
ablative	lectō	lectīs
vocative	lecte	lectī

Derived terms

• lectīca
• lectīcārius
• lectīcula
• lectuārius
• lectulus

Descendants

• Asturian: llechu, lletu
• Catalan: llit
• Dalmatian: ljat
• Friulian: jet
• Italian: letto
• Occitan: lèit
• Old French: lit
  • Bourguignon: leit
  • French: lit
  • Norman: liet
• Old Galician-Portuguese: leito
  • Galician: leito
  • Portuguese: leito
• Old Spanish: lecho, llecho
  • Ladino: lecho / ליג׳ו
  • Spanish: lecho
• Romansh: letg
• Sardinian: letu
• Sicilian: lettu
• Venetan: łeto
• → Proto-Brythonic: *lleɨθ
  • Middle Welsh: lleith (“death, extinction”)
    • Welsh: llaith
• → Old Irish: lecht (“grave”)
  • Irish: leacht (“grave(mound)”)

References

• “lectus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lectus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "lectus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “lectus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be confined to one's bed: lecto teneri
    
  • to rise from one's bed, get up: e lecto or e cubīli surgere
    
• “lectus”, in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[2]
• “lectus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “lectus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin