lacuna

English

WOTD – 30 July 2008

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lacūna (“ditch, gap”), diminutive form of lacus (“lake”). Doublet of lagoon.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ləˈkjuː.nə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ləˈkuː.nə/, /ləˈkjuː.nə/

• Audio (US)

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  Audio (US)

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Noun

lacuna (plural lacunae or lacunæ or lacunas)

1. A small opening; a small pit or depression.
2. A small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.
   • 1912, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World‎^[1]:

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

3. 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.

4. Any gap, break, hole, or lack in a set of things; something missing.
   • 2019, Li Huang; James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, DOI:10.1080/01434632.2019.1596115, page 11:

     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.

5. (microscopy) A space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light.
6. (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.

Synonyms

• hiatus
• gap
• (translation studies): anisomorphism

Derived terms

• lacunal
• lacunar
• lacunary
• lacunose

Translations

small opening

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: aukko (fi) (same word for small and large openings)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lakune m

  Nynorsk: lakune m or f

• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

absent part

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

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• 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

in microscopy

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

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

in linguistics

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• 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

Anagrams

• canula

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lacuna. Compare the inherited doublet laguna.

Pronunciation

• lacùna
• IPA^(key): /laˈkuna/
• Rhymes: -una

Noun

lacuna f (plural lacune)

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

Anagrams

• alcuna
• lucana

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Latin

Etymology

From lacus (“lake, basin”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /laˈkuː.na/, [ɫ̪aˈkuː.na]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /laˈku.na/, [laˈkuː.na]

Noun

lacūna f (genitive lacūnae); first declension

1. a hole, pit
2. an opening, cavity, hollow, cleft
3. a gap, void, defect

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lacūna	lacūnae
Genitive	lacūnae	lacūnārum
Dative	lacūnae	lacūnīs
Accusative	lacūnam	lacūnās
Ablative	lacūnā	lacūnīs
Vocative	lacūna	lacūnae

Derived terms

• lacūnar
• lacūnārius
• lacūnō
• lacūnōsus

Descendants

• Asturian: llaguna
• Catalan: llacuna
• → English: lacuna
• → French: lacune
  • → English: lacune
• Galician: lagoa
• → Italian: lacuna
• Italian: laguna
  • → French: lagune
    • → Danish: lagune
    • → Dutch: lagune
    • → English: lagoon
  • → Portuguese: laguna
• Occitan: laguna, lòna, lagua

• Portuguese: lagoa
• → Portuguese: lacuna
• Romanian: lacună (borrowing or through French), lagună (through Italian or French)
• Russian: лакуна (lakuna) (borrowing)
• Spanish: laguna
• Venetian: 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, 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 (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

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Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lacūna. Compare the inherited lagoa and laguna.

Noun

lacuna f (plural lacunas)

1. hiatus (gap in a series)

   Synonym: hiato

2. blank (space to be filled in)

Related terms

• lagoa