lacio

From Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, pull”), of uncertain further origin. Possibly related to lacer (“torn, mangled”).^[1]

Prósper (2019, 30-4) argues it is from the zero-grade of *deh₃- (“to give”), with a semantic evolution of “‘fraud, deception’ (< ‘decoy, lure’ < ‘something offered to sight’)” (p. 33). For the sound change, compare lingua and lacrima.

Unused outside of glosses, reconstructed by grammarian Festus Grammaticus to explain its derivatives, see laqueus, lacessō and frequentative lactō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɫa.ki.oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈlaː.t͡ʃi.o]

laciō (present infinitive lacere, perfect active licuī, supine lactum); third (-iō variant) conjugation (very rare)

1. to entice, ensnare
   • 1839 [8th century CE], Paulus Diaconus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Excerpta ex libris Pompeii Festi De significatione verborum, page 116, line 15:

     Lacit dēcipiendō indūcit. Lax etenim fraus est.

     Lacit, deceives by beguiling. For lax means deceit.

   • 8th C. CE, Glossae codicis Sangallensis, leaf 75 verso in Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum (volume IV), Georg Goetz (editor), Bibliotheca Teubneriana, page 253, line 41:

     Lacit captat suādet

     Lacit: to entice, to deceive

• “lacio”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lacio”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Inherited from Old Spanish llacio, from Latin flaccidus. Doublet of flácido.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlaθjo/ [ˈla.θjo] (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• IPA^(key): /ˈlasjo/ [ˈla.sjo] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -aθjo (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• Rhymes: -asjo (Latin America, Philippines)
• Syllabification: la‧cio

lacio (feminine lacia, masculine plural lacios, feminine plural lacias)

1. limp, flaccid, flabby

   Synonyms: flácido, marchito

   • 2011, Carolina Gonzalez Vergara, Porque Se Destruyo la Tierra?:

     Gabriela sentía sus piernas como de género lacias y débiles

     Gabriela felt her legs all limp and weak

2. limp (lacking stiffness)
   • 2012, Juan Francisco Ferré, Karnaval:

     bajándole la cremallera del pantalón y extrayendo un pene lacio, grande pero flácido

     pulling down his flies and taking out a limp penis, big but flaccid

3. languid
   • 1911, Miguel de Unamuno, “Civilitas”, in Rosario de sonetos líricos:

     La envidia de morder nunca se sacia
     pues no come; por eso es que no engorda,
     y á la pobre alma á la que sola aborda
     de puro soledad la pone lacia.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. straight (of hair)

   Synonym: liso

   Antonym: rizado

   • 1883, Emilia Pardo Bazán, La Tribuna:

     se incorporó Amparo, apartando de la frente los negros cabellos lacios con el sudor que los empapaba

     Amparo got to his feet, wiping his straight black locks from his forehead with the sweat dripping off them.

5. worthless

• “lacio”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025