LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

laevus

laevus

left

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 76 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. laevus — de Vaan

laevus 'left' [adj. ο/α] (Ρ1.+) Derivatives: laeva 'the left hand; the left' (PI.+). Pit. *laiwo-, PIE *Ieh2i-uo- or *lh2ei-uo- 'left'. IE cognates: Gr. λαι(ρ)ός 'left*, OCS levt, Ru. levyj, SCr. Rjevi Md.', ToB laiwo 'lassitude' (< *-uehr\ The original meaning may have been 'curved', although this can hardly be considered proven by the quotation from Servius: laevi (sc, boves) quorum cornua ad terrain spectanL … — [de Vaan, s.v. laevus, p. 337]

2. laevus — Lewis & Short

laevus, a, um, adj.cf. Gr. laio/s,

I left, on the left side (mostly poet.; syn.: sinister, scaevus).
I Lit.: ut idem nunc sit laevus; et e laevo sit mutua dexter, Lucr. 4, 301 (325): manus, Cic. Ac. 2, 47, 145: ab laeva manu, Plaut. Aul. 4, 3, 1: habeo equidem hercle oculum. Py. At laevom dico, Plaut. Mil. 4, 7, 24: latus, Ov. M. 12, 415: auris id. ib. 12, 336: pes, id. ib. 12, 101: umerus, id. H. 9, 62: Pontus, lying to the left, id. P. 4, 9, 119: iter, Verg. A. 5, 170: habena, Hor. Ep. 1, 15, 12: amnis, the left bank, Tac. A. 2, 8: laevā in parte mamillae, Juv. 7, 159. —
B Subst.
1 laeva, ae, f.
(a) (Sc. manus.) The left hand: opsecro te hanc per dexteram, perque hanc sororem laevam, Plaut. Poen. 3, 1, 9: Ilionea petit dextrā, laevāque Serestum, Verg. A. 1, 611; id. ib. 2, 552; 7, 188: cognovi clipeum laevae gestamina nostrae, Ov. M. 15, 163; id. ib. 4, 782; 8, 321: hinc factum est ut usus anulorum exemtus dexterae, in laevam relegaretur, Macr. S. 7, 13, 11; so, dextera laevaque, Juv. 6, 561; 658.—
(b) (Sc. pars.) The left side: laevam cuncta cohors remis ventisque petivit, Verg. A. 3, 563: laevam pete, go to the left, Ov. M. 3, 642.—Esp. freq. adv.: laevā, on the left side, on the left: dextrā montibus, laevā Tiberi amne saeptus, on the left, Liv. 4, 32: dextrā laevāque duo maria claudunt, id. 21, 43: so, a laevā: Diana facem jacit a laeva, Enn. ap. Cic. Ac. 2, 28, 89 (Trag. Rel. v. 55 Vahl.); Vulg. Exod. 14, 22.—So, ad laevam, in laevam, to the left, on the left: ante, et pone; ad laevam, et ad dexteram, Cic. Univ. 13: si in laevam detorserit, Plin. 28, 8, 27, § 93.—
2 In neutr.: laevum, on the left (poet.): intonuit laevum, Verg. A. 2, 693; 9, 631: laevum extendere comas, Juv. 6, 495: in laevum, adverbially, to the left: fleximus in laevum cursus, Ov. Tr. 1, 10, 17: dixit in laevum conversus, Juv. 4, 120 (Jahn, in laevam).— Plur.: laeva, ōrum, n., places lying on the left: laeva tenent Thetis et Melite, Verg. A. 5, 825: Thracen et laeva Propontidos intrat, Ov. F. 5, 257.—
II Trop.
A Awkward, stupid, foolish, silly: si mens non laeva fuisset, Verg. E. 1, 16; id. A. 2, 54: o ego laevus, Qui purgor bilem sub verni temporis horam, Hor. A. P. 301.—
B Of ill omen, unfavorable, inconvenient; unfortunate, unlucky, bad, pernicious: Sirius laevo contristat lumine caelum, Verg. A. 10, 275: peccatum fateor, cum te sic tempore laevo Interpellarim, Hor. S. 2, 4, 4: teque nec laevus vetat ire picus, id. C. 3, 27, 15: laevo monitu pueros producit avaros, Juv. 14, 228: omen, Val. Fl. 6, 70: ignis, i. e. a pestilence, Stat. Th. 1, 634; Claud. Idyll. 2, 92; Sil. 1, 464 Rupert; so, numina laeva (opp. dextra or propitia), unfavorable gods, hostile deities, Verg. G. 4, 7 Jahn and Forbig. ad loc.: impia Cappadocum tellus et numine laevo Visa tibi, Mart. 6, 85, 3; Sil. 14, 494; 15, 512; Arn. adv. Gent. 3, 26.—
C In the language of augurs, fortunate, lucky, propitious (because the Romans, by turning their faces to the south, had the eastern signs on their left hand; v. sinister): laeva prospera existimantur, quoniam laevā parte mundi ortus est, Plin. 2, 54, 55, § 142; cf. Liv. 1, 18: omina, Phaedr. 3, 18, 12: tonitru dedit omina laevo Juppiter, Ov. F. 4, 833; cf. Verg. A. 2, 693; 9, 631 (I. B. 2 supra).—Hence, adv.: laevē, awkwardly, wrongly (poet.), Hor. Ep. 1, 7, 52.

3. laevus — Walde–Hofmann

laevus, a, -um „link“ (Subst. laeva [sc. manus, vgl. dextera] „die linke Hand", -um v. -a n. „linke Seite, Gegend"); linkisch; unbequem, laevus — laganum. 751 ungünstig“; in der Auguralsprache auch (-a nümina usw.) „günstig“ (weil bei der Südorientierung die östliche Seite des Betenden links E daneben gab es auch eine Ostorientierung, wo links = „nördlich^ [nach Ausweis von o.-u. nertro- ,links* : gr. véprepoc ist … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. laevus, p. 782]

In the wild

6 of 308 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. laevus (scan pp. 337-338; entry #861). Root candidates: *laiwo-, *leh2iuo-, *leh2-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. laeuus (scan p. 362; entry #5680).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. laevus (scan pp. 782-783; entry #1484). Root candidates: *lEi-, *slaiwa-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.