Word origins

• latifundiumA great landed estate with absentee ownership and labor often in a state of partial servitude.
• latinizeTo translate something into the Latin language; or make a word similar in appearance or form to a Latin word.
• latrateTo bark; to make doglike noises.
• latrationBarking, an instance of barking.
• laudationThe act of lauding; high praise or commendation.
• laudativelaudatory
• lautiouslySumptuously, elegantly, in an elegant or sumptuous manner.
• lavationwashing or cleansing.
• LazicaA region and kingdom in eastern shore of Black Sea corresponding to the ancient Colchis.
• lecticaA kind of Roman litter, typically with bedding, curtains, and four legs.
• lectio difficiliorThe more difficult reading, held to be the more likely when faced with two manuscripts that disagree on a particular reading, according to the principle of lectio difficilior potior.
• lectisterniumAn ancient "feast of the gods", at which images of the gods were set on couches around a feast table.
• LemegetonThe Lesser Key of Solomon, a notable grimoire compiled in the mid-17th century.
• lemniscusOne of two oval bodies hanging from the interior walls of the body in the Acanthocephala.
• lemuresThe spirits or ghosts of the dead, considered as malignant.
• LenaeusDionysus/Bacchus
• lenisRelatively weakly articulated, hence unaspirated and possibly voiced; especially as compared to the others of a group of homorganic consonants.
• lenociniumA husband's connivance at his wife's adultery.
• lenticulaA kind of eruption upon the skin; lentigo; freckle.
• lentiformShaped like a biconvex lens.
• lentiscusThe mastic-tree (Pistacia lentiscus).
• LeontiniAn ancient city in Sicily, now Lentini
• lepraSynonym of leprosy.
• Leptis MagnaA former city in Libya, one of the cities of Tripoli that did not survive to modern times.
• lethargusA quiescent sleeplike state in some arthropods and nematodes.
• lethiferousDeadly, lethal.
• levigateTo make smooth or polish.
• lex lataThe law as it is.
• LezgiA member of an ethnic group living predominantly in southern Dagestan and northeastern Azerbaijan.
• libantSipping; touching lightly.
• libateTo pour a liquid, most often wine, in sacrifice on the ground, on a ritual object, or on a victim, in honor of some deity.
• libellaA small balance.
• libido dominandiThe will to power; the desire to dominate; the lust for government.
• LibitinaAn ancient Roman goddess of funerals and burial.
• librateTo oscillate (like the beam of a balance).
• lichanosIn Ancient Greek musical theory, the higher-pitched of the two movable notes in the nearer tetrachord on a lyre, pitched lower than the mese and higher than the parhypate.
• lictorAn officer in Ancient Rome, attendant on a consul or magistrate, who bore the fasces and was responsible for punishing criminals.
• lienalOf or pertaining to the spleen.
• lienicOf or pertaining to the spleen.
• lieno-spleen
• lienteryA form of diarrhea in which food passes through the body with little or no digestion.
• ligneousOf, or resembling wood; woody.
• liguresThe ancient Ligurians.
• limbateHaving a distinct edge, especially one of a different colour; bordered.
• limitateBounded by a distinct line or boundary.
• linea albaA fibrous structure that runs down the midline of the abdomen in humans and other vertebrates.
• linea nigraA dark vertical line, running up the abdomen from the pubis to the navel (though it sometimes runs further, to the top of the abdomen) that forms during pregnancy.
• lineateTo mark with lines.
• lingulaA Roman unit of liquid measure reckoned as the volume of ⁵⁄₁₂ Roman ounce of wine, equivalent to about 11 mL.
• lippitudesoreness of the eyes; blearedness
• liquamenA fish sauce used in Ancient Rome.
• liquateTo separate by fusion, as a more fusible from a less fusible material.
• liquationThe partial melting of a mixture of metals or ores in order to separate components.
• liquesceTo become a liquid; to liquefy.
• lirulaA fungus of the genus Lirula, known to cause foliage diseases in conifers.
• lis pendensA notice of pending litigation against a property.
• literae humanioresAn undergraduate course of study focused on classics.
• literatusA learned person; especially one acquainted with literature.
• lituraA spot growing paler at one end.
• liturgicliturgical
• lituusA military trumpet.
• livedoA form of skin discoloration.
• livorSkin discoloration, as from a bruise, or occurring after death.
• lobulusA lobule; a small lobe or subdivision of a lobe.
• lobusA lobe.
• locatio et conductioA contract of hire. A bailment: goods delivered or property or land made available to the bailee in exchange for money or reward paid to the bailor. May be one of three main types: locatio rei, 'the hire of a thing'; locatio operarum, 'a worker for a wage'; locatio operis faciendi, a contract for 'services providing a result'
• locellusA secondary locule or compartment.
• lochusA military unit headed by a lochagus.
• LocrisAn ancient region of Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of three distinct districts.
• loculusA little place or space; a cell; a chamberlet.
• locupletePossessing wealth; rich.
• locus in quoThe scene of the event; the place where the cause of action arose.
• locutorA speaker (one who talks).
• logaoedicOf any metre rhythmically intermediate between ordinary speech (or prose) and song (or poetry), typically combining dactyls and trochees.
• logomachyDispute over the meaning of words
• longimetryThe measurement of length.
• loricateTo cover with some protecting substance, as with lute, a crust, coating, or plates.
• LotophagusA member of the Lotophagi; a lotus eater.
• lucanicaA short, fat, rustic pork sausage in Ancient Roman cuisine.
• luciferousilluminating; providing light.
• lucrousLucrative; gainful; profitable.
• lucubrateTo work diligently by artificial light; to study at night.
• lucumoAn Etruscan ruler.
• lucus a non lucendoA form of illogical argument asserting that two things are related because they have opposite significations.
• LudovicusA male given name from Latin.
• lues cerebricerebral syphilis
• luminateTo illuminate.
• lunisticeThe farthest point of the moon's northing and southing, in its monthly revolution.
• lunomancydivination by interpreting shadows created by moonlight on a person's face dusted with silver. This is most often done on the full moon to have the highest moonlight intensity.
• lunulaSomething shaped like a crescent or half-moon; especially the pale area at the base of the fingernail.
• LupercusA god who protected flocks, in some sources identified with Faunus in the aspect of Inuus, and by extension as the equivalent of the Greek Πὰν Λυκαῖος (Pàn Lukaîos, “Lycaean Pan”).
• LusitanA native or inhabitant of Lusitania; a Portuguese.
• LusitanicOf or relating to the ancient Lusitans or Lusitania.
• lustralOf or pertaining to (ritual) purification.
• lustrationA rite of purification, especially washing.
• lustrumA lustration: a ceremonial purification of the people of Rome performed every five years after the census.
• luteolousYellowish.
• luteousYellowish.
• luxateTo dislocate; to displace a body part.
• LycaoniaA large region in interior Asia Minor, north of the Taurus Mountains.