The corpus record — Latin

larva

larva · f

a ghost, spectre

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

Where it lives

Apocolocyntosis 1 · 3.69/10k
Contra Symmachum 3 · 2.5/10k
Aulularia 1 · 1.45/10k
Captivi 1 · 1.16/10k
Satyrarum libri 1 · 0.7/10k
Metamorphoses 1 · 0.19/10k
Naturalis Historia 1 · 0.03/10k

What it meant

larva — Lewis & Short

larva (ante-class. as trisyl. lārŭa), ae, f.2. lar,

I a ghost, spectre: larvae stimulant virum, Plaut. Capt. 3, 4, 66: amator qui me et uxorem ludificatust larva, id. Cas. 3, 4, 2; id. Aul. 4, 4, 15: cum mortuis non nisi larvas luctari, Plin. praef. H. N. § 31.—As a term of reproach, hobgoblin, scarecrow: etiam loquere larŭa? Plaut. Merc. 5, 4, 20: nam haec quidem edepol larvarum plenast, possessed, id. Am. 2, 2, 145.—

II Transf.

A A mask (cf. persona): nil illi larva et tragicis opus esse cothurnis, Hor. S. 1, 5, 64.—

B A skeleton, Petr. 34, 8.

In the wild

larvas Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 1.1.631
larva Horace, Satyrarum libri 1.5.64
larvas Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 1.praef.p7
Laruae Plautus, Aulularia 4.4
larvas Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 1.1.497
larvas Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 2.1.840

6 of 9 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. larua (scan p. 342; entry #877). Root candidates: *las-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. larua (scan p. 366; entry #5768).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. lärüa (scan p. 798; entry #1501).

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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.