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The Alphabetary Heraldic

Genealogical Glossary

L

L : [Ogham Q-Celtic] loth.[1]

L : land, as a basis for taxation.  Cf. G, W.

L. : Latin.

l. : legitimo : [Sp] legitimate.

l. : liber.

L.C. : Library of Congress.

L.D. : Littera dominicalis : Dominical Letter.

L.D.S. : LDS.

l.l. : loco ladato, loco laudato : [Lt] place in dispute; place unknown, place undetermined.

l.s. : locus sigilli : place where the seals are attached.

l’ : [Fr] the French definite arti­cles le and la as they appear before vowels; a name element meaning ‘the’ that appears in the name L’Estrange.

L’Amitié est l’Amour sans ailes : Friendship is love without wings.  This was a favorite motto of Lord Byron.[2]

La : [anthropology] in-law.

la : [Fr, Sp] the feminine definite article; a name el­ement.

la grippe : grip, a mild form of influenza.

La. : LA : Louisiana.

lääni : [Fi] county.

lab- : lep- : lem- : [Gk] to take, seize.

labes : a falling or sinking inward; a cause of ruin, as in labes terræ.  Spot, stain, blemish, as in spotted fever.  Stain of infamy or disgrace.

labia : lip.  Cf. Cyprian petals.

labia majora : [1838] larger lips; the outer fatty folds of the vulva, bordering the vestibule of a woman’s vagina.  The same flesh that creates the labia majora in a female happens to develop in male body as the scrotum.  Cf. scrotum.

labia minora : [1838] smaller lips; the inner and highly vascular folds of the vulva, bordering the vestibule.

labial : formed with the lips; pronounced through the articulation of one’s lips.

labor: childbirth, travail; toil, performance, work.

labor : to be in childbirth; to act with painful effort; to toil, travail.

labor, indentured servitude, and slavery : the three categories of working-class steerage immigrants to America.  Depending upon the labor market and general circumstances, these three worker pools often competed with one another for available jobs.  The U.S. Congress outlawed slave trade in 1807, and halted the traffic in indentured servants in 1819, but commerce in human labor and its transportation never really ceased.  After 1819, contract laborers purchased their own transit by steerage class, by paying nominal fees for rations of food and drink.  However, they were still obliged to repay the entire cost of their voyage, and were therefore nothing but indentured servants upon arrival, regardless of the changes in nomenclature and legal status.

laborer : [1548] one who works at sundry tasks.  The wages for a laborer were 2d per day at Hunstanton in 1548.[3]  Cf. wages.

laborer : [1877 Am] an immigrant worker of either sex, whose capital value averaged about $1,125 per person in New York in 1877.[4]

laborer, female : [1877 Am] an immigrant woman worker whose capital value was estimated at $750 at New York in 1877, which was half the value of a male laborer.[5]

laborer, male : [1877 Am] an immigrant man worker whose capital value was estimated at $1,500 at New York in 1877, twice the value of a female laborer.[6]

labr. : laborer.

labyrinth : labyrinthus : maze, a place formed with wandering passages; a popular garden feature made of hedges for the diversion of guests.

lace : 13th year of marriage; symbol of the thirteenth wedding anniversary.

lackbrain : one who wants wit.

lackey : lacquais : [Fr] foot-boy, an attending servant.

lacto- : milk.

lad : [Sx] stripling, a boy, young man.

lady : [Sx] Wi; a woman of high rank; mistress, importing power and dominion as lady of the manor;[7] the title lady is allowed of the wives of knights and all superior ranks, and also allowed to wives of earls and ranks superior to an earl.

Lady Dame : [1547/5/22] an honorary compellation used with respect to Lady Dame Anne le Strange.  By modern standards, the two titles Lady and Dame both signify the wife of a knight or baron, and sound redundant when placed in juxtaposition.

Lady of Play : [1532] the nickname of an itinerant lesbian named Diana in Novi, Italy, in 1532.  A woman named Domenica Barbarelli confessed to having traveled with Diana.

ladyship : the title of a lady, the state of a lady.

laete : gladly, joyfully, with gai­ety.

Laetitia : Lettice.

laetus : fat, rich; fertile; co­pious, fluent; bright, pleasant, fortunate, pro­pitious.

Laguna and Acoma : the pueblo natives Queres or Keres in the southwest.

Laguna sororates : the female sisterhoods organized around the creator goddess Keres the Thought Woman, who was created by her two sisters.  The three Laguna sisters and their sororates were responsible for all creations, and determined the order of the Laguna tribe.[8]  Cf. Acoma, Keres, Queres.

laick : laique : [Fr] layman, belonging to the laity, one of the people distinct from the clergy.

laird in Scotland : [1200 Sc] lord, a landed proprietor.  When Parliament issued a Writ of Summons to a Scottish laird, it uses the title Lord, because the Scots object to the Norman-French title Baron.

laissant de Jeanne de Joyeuse : he left by Jeanne de Joyeuse [two sons].[9]

Lakota : [IA, WA, ND] a Dakota tribal name among the Sioux; a name variant of Dakota.  Cf. Oglala.

Lakota shamans : adi-wa-lona, koskalaka.

lallation : pronouncing \l\ for \r\, or \r\ as \l\, as Chinese speakers do.  Cf. rhotacism.

lamb : a sheep from birth until first shearing.  Cf. sheep.

lambo : lingo, to lick.

lamboys : [1600] steel skirts typically used in armor of the sixteenth century.[10]

lame : [Sx] crippled, disabled; hobbling.

lamia : hag, witch, a demon who assumes the form of a beautiful women but then devours children.

laminated : articulated.

Lammas : [Sx] 1 August.

län : [Sw] county.

Lancashire : Lancs.

Lancaster: Lancastra : Lancastria : Lania : Loncastria : Lunia.

Lancaster Herald : one of six secondary heralds.

Lancastra : Lancashire.

Lancastria : Lancashire.

lanceati : the lancers and bowmen (sagittarii) of the infantry.[11]

Lancs. : Lancashire.

land : [Gm, Dn, Du, Nw, Sw] country, real estate, immovable property.

land grant : any of several kinds of charters, deeds, indentures, and government patents written to effect the transfer or conveyance of land to someone.  In feudal times, such a grant normally pertained to benefice, fee, or tenancy, and the personal use and possession of a parcel of granted land often passed in perpetuity to the heirs males of the grantee.  With the advent of democratic forms of government, these feudalistic and conditional holdings and tenancies yielded to the new concept of personal ownership.  As death and taxes are inevitable, no individual on earth can claim absolute ownership to any parcel of land.  The tenancy or ownership of any real estate is always subject to sovereign power.  The possession or property rights of a tenant or owner can always be defeated by a government claim of preëminent domain, and can sometimes be forfeited for non-payment of taxes, acts of treason, and other causes.

land ownership : the possession and control of land by life tenure, hereditary tenure, or purchase.  The individual or independent ownership of land is a relatively new concept, which was never available as a option in feudal times.  Types of land ownership include community land, family land, land possessed jointly be­tween spouses (jointure), and private land owned by an individual.

landau : a coach with a retractable roof.

landed : owning real estate, having a fortune in land.

Landgemeinde : [Gm] village, a rural settlement.

landgrave : [Gm] count, a German title of dominion.

landholder: one who holds land.

landica : clitoris; an indecent term.

Landinium : London.

landlady : a woman who has tenants holding from her; mistress of an inn.

landlord : [Sx] one who holds or owns houses and lands with tenants under him; master of an inn.

landlordry : state of a landlord.

landman : [Sx] countryman, one who lives and serves on land.  Opp. seaman.

landowner : [1431] a person belonging to one of the landowning classes, and counted among knights, esquires, gentlemen, or yeomen.[12]  Cf. esquire, gentleman, knight, yeoman.

landsby : [Dn] village.

Lango : a tall and slender Nilotic people native to the marshy lowlands northeast of Lakes Kwania and Kyoga in northern Uganda.  The Lango speak an eastern Sudanic language that belongs to the Chari-Nile group.  Cf. Barea.

Lango shaman : a medicine man in Uganda.[13]

language : agglutinative language, such as Sumerian, Turkish, Hungarian, and some Caucasian languages, wherein the root words remain unchanged and uninflected.

language : inflected language, such as a Semitic or Indo-European language, wherein the root words are changed by inflection.

language of courts and pleadings : French (1066-1362) and English (inde 36 Edw III, 1362).

language of rolls : Latin (1066-1731) and English (inde 4 Geo II, 1731).

lanius : butcher.

lantern : a roof lantern or louver; a small open turret placed atop an opening in a roof to provide an outlet for smoke.

Lanzknecht : [Gm] lance knight; pikeman, billman, halberdier.

lapdog : a small dog a lady might fondle on her lap.  Mary Queen of Scots had lapdogs.

lapidate : lapido : to stone, to kill by stoning.

lapidation : lapidatio : a stoning.

lapis lazuli: sappur.  Cf. new Decalogue.

lapsed or unclaimed : suspension of peerage through neglect or disinterest.

lapseton : [Fi] childless.

lapsi : [Fi] child.

lapsing : Cf. destination.

larboard : portside, the left side of a ship.  Opp. starboard.

lard : lardum : the grease of swine, bacon, the flesh of swine.

larder : lardier : [Fr] the room where meat is kept and salted.

lasciviousness : looseness, wantonness.

lashing : Cf. whipping.

lass : laddess : girl, maid, young woman.

lasslorn : forsaken by his mistress.

last will and testament : the customary title of a written bequest, made in contemplation of death.  Such a document may be shortly called a will, but that word might be easyily misread as the ordinary verb will.  To avoid confusion, a writer sometimes specifies ‘last will and testament’ in full, or instead uses the noun testament.  In a formal last will, the testator must nominate a primary and secondary executor, and have witnesses sign the testament.  Like a deed, a testament is a document under seal.  Unlike a deed, a testamentary instrument does not require any delivery or acceptance.  A testator might modify his will by supplementing it with a simple codicil.  Cf. codicil, holographic will.

last words : novissima verba.  Cf. first words.

lat- : to bear, carry.

Lat. : Latin.

lat. : latitude.

later- : latr- : [Gk] to worship excessively, be fanatically devoted to.

later- : side.

laterality : ramage, collaterality; an ego-oriented concept of relationship.  Laterality is the horizontal correlative of vertical lineage.  Opp. lineage, lineality.

Lateran Council : [1123] First Lateran Council, the Christian conclave at the Lateran Palace in Rome that outlawed clerical marriage, or the same-sex marriage of clerks, monks, and nuns.[14]

Lateran Council : [1179] Third Lateran Council, the Christian conclave that issued statues to limit Jewish civil powers and financing, and to restrict the social interactions between Christians and Jews. The Third Lateran Council at Rome condemned the popularization of homosexual relations among the clergy, and thereby commenced a systematic persecution of homosexuality that persists until today.  These anti-Semitic and homophobic measures were revived and reïnstituted by Nazi Germany, mainly between 1938 and 1945.  Cf. death penalty.

Lateran Council : [1215] Fourth Lateran Council, the Christian conclave that forbade Jews from holding any public office, imposed restrictions on Jewish finance, prohibited them from going outdoors in the last days of Holy Week, and ordered Jews to wear clothing to distingusish them from Christians.  The same Christian strictures against Jews were reïnstituted by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945.  Cf. pink triangle, Star of David.

Lateran Synod : [1059] a Christian assembly at Rome that enacted several clerical reforms, but which ignored all pleas to prohibit clerical marriage.[15]

Latin : a descendant of Latia, wife of Saturn.

Latin : Lat. : Lt : the language of Latium, Rome, and the Vulgate, or the Latin translation of the Bible.  Latin was widely promulgated through the expansion of the Roman Empire, and was an international language for many centuries, for it was used as an official language by states, churches, and universities.  Colloquializations of Latin resulted in the Romance languages we know today:  Italian, Spanish, French, and Romanian.  Latin certainly affected and influenced most of the languages in Europe, and left indelible marks on German and English.  Latin itself borrowed extensively from Greek.

latr- : later- : [Gk] to worship excessively, be fanatically devoted to.

latten : lattin : [1400] a yellow alloy of copper and zinc that resembles brass.  When produced in thin sheets, latten can be easily hammered into shapes, and therefore, artisans often used wooden templates to produce many latten copies of the same artwork.  The process originated in Cologne, and so was often called Cullen plate.  It was widely used in medieval times to fabricate various items, such as crosses, candlesticks, and seal-dies.  Genealogists may extract an abundance of information preserved in the medium of latten, because it was the material used to fabricate the large, monumental brasses that decorate tombs.  When molded into thick shapes, the same alloy is called cock-brass, because it makes a perfectly suitable material for the valve cocks.  Cf. monumental brass.

Latter-day Saint : [1834] Mormon (1827); a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (1834); one who accepts the Book of Mormon as divine revelation.

lattice windows painted red : [1603] a feature typical of a tavern.

launderer : one whose business is laundering.

laundress : a woman who finds employment washing clothes.

laundry : lavanderie : [Fr] the act or state of washing; the room in which clothes are washed.

laureate : crowned with laurel.  Edward IV crowned the first poet laureate.

Laurentius : Lawrence.

lavolta : a variety of the galliard dance in which the dancers performed the five-step with leaps and whirls.  Cf. galliard, coranto.

law : [Sx] rule of action, decree, edict, statute, custom; jurisprudence, the judicial process.  Cf. patrism.

law and order : Cf. arts and science.  Opp. nature and nurture.

law merchant : merchant law; the common law of merchants that mainly derived from the customary rules and conventions of trading.  For the settlement of disputes and contests, the merchants normally assembled at periodical markets or fairs to act as a collective jury, and this collaboration often gave rise to the regulations of trade guilds.  If a mercantile dispute was to be tried before the King’s Bench, the chief justice would summon twelve merchants to sit as the jury, so merchant law was often translated into common law.[16]

lawers : lawers in the sea; stakes used to position in the shallow sea, a fence of pokenets, extending perpendicularly from the shore.  The netted area between each pair of lawers was called a birth, probably the same word as berth.[17]  Cf. sea lawers.

lawers : fenceposts.  The bailiff of Little Ringstead purchased 19,000 lawers to create an enclosure in 1536’7.[18]

lawn : lande [Fr] : llan [We] : land : [Dn] : a plain unploughed, an open space between woods.

laws of the forests : forest laws, quod vide.

lawyer : advocate, pleader, professor of law; causidicus, barrister.

laxus cunnus : an enlarged clitoris; hiatus; an obscene and offensive invective.

lay : laicus : not clerical, pertaining to the people distinct from the clergy.

lay subsidy : a special tax assessment levied on laymen, usually to finance warfare.  Laymen and clerics were treated separately, and therefore ‘lay subsidy’ returns should exclude ecclesiastical sources.  Cf. subsidy.

Lay Subsidy of 1524’25 : a national tax list used as a resource for events at Hunstanton.[19]

Lay Subsidy returns (1524-1525) : To finance the War with France, Wolsey demanded of the Parliament a property tax of 20%, but Parliament rejected his demand, and instead passed a law for a 10% tax on property.[20]  Cf. lay subsidy.

LB : Luther’s Bible (1522-1545).

ld. : land.

LDS : [IGI] Mormons, Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ, seated in Salt Lake City, UT, authors of the International Genealogical Index (IGI), and archivists of primary and secondary records.

LDS Events : [IGI] A, B, C, D, M, S, N, W : Adult Christening, Birth, Christening, Death, Marriage, Miscellaneous (S), Census (N), and Will, vital events subject to the Ordinances.

LDS Ordinances : [IGI] Mormon Ordinances wherein the LDS Event date of an ancestor or antecedent leads to LDS Baptism, Endowment, and Sealing.  The certification process culminates in the sealing of a child to his or her parents, or the sealing of one spouse to another.

le : [Fr] the masculine definite article; a name element

-le : -ole.

lead palsy : a condition preceded by Painter’s colic.  Lead in the body causes the muscles of the forearm to be palsied.

leader : captain, commander; one who leads or conducts, one who goes first; one at the head of any party or faction.

league : ligo [Lt] ; ligue [Fr] : confederacy, an association of friendship or common interest.

leah : [OE] wood, woodland, clearing, glade; pasture, meadow.

leap day : the intercalary day that Roman chroniclers insert in February every leap year, every 4 years, as well as in certain centesimal leap years, for the purpose of Epact adjustment.  In modern times, we commonly regard 29 February as the leap day, but the ancient Romans inserted the extra day between 23 and 24 February.  Cf. bissexto-kalendæ, sexto-kalendæ.

leap year : bissextile year; intercalary year; a year 366 days long that has an extra day on 29 February and that occurs every four years to provide one intercalary day to the common year of 365 days.  Cf. centesimal year, Gregorian Calendar.

leasehold : held by lease; a leasehold tenement.

leasehold of 10 years : [ante 1510] the average leasehold of demesne land of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which he lengthened to terms of 15 years after 1510.[21]

leasehold of 15 years : [inde 1510] the average leasehold of demesne land of the Archbishop of Canterbury, that the Archbishop increased from 10 years to 15 years in 1510.[22]

leasehold of 21 years : [1540’1] the limitation of a tenancy to 3 lives, or 21 years, that was imposed by the Act of Leases in 32 Hen VIII (1540/4/22-1541/4/21).  The customary leaseholds of 7 years could be renewed, but the crown decided to limit a single leasehold to a maximum of 3 life tenures, or 21 years.  Cf. life leasehold.

leasehold of 7 years : [1502-1612] Oestmann concluded that leaseholds of 7 years must have commenced at Hunstanton in 1502, and that they remained the customary term until at least 1612.  Leaseholds were usually renewed, and could last for periods of 7, 14, or 21 years.[23]

leasehold of 7 years : [1517] fixation of the life tenure at 7 years, that became customary in the early years of the reign Henry VIII (regnavit 1509-1547).  The earliest bailiff account at Hunstanton that fixed the leasehold at 7 years was dated 8 Henry VIII (1516’7).[24]

leasehold rent per acre : [1376-1378] 12d for the annual use of one acre of demesne land.

leasehold rent per acre : [1401-1500] 6¼d to 7¼d for the annual use of one acre of demesne land.  The rents dropped from 12d to the lower level of 6¼d to 7¼d, because of declining population, combined with an increase in land available for rent.[25]

leasehold rent per acre : [1455-1530] 6d per acre of demesne land, per year.  This was the low point of rents in England.[26]

leasehold rent per acre : [1583-1610] rents on the manors Hunstanton and Munstrell were 2s per arable acre, in Norfolk, from 1583 until 1610.

leasehold rent per acres : [1611] 2s 6d per acre of demesne land at the manors of Hunstanton and Munstrell, Norfolk, from 1611.

leaseholds of 6-7 years : [1500] the customary terms of tenures of manorial land in Norfolk.  Such leaseholds tended to lengthen during the fifteenth century.

leaser : gleaner, one who gathers cuttings after a reaper.

leather : 3rd year of marriage; symbol of the third wedding anniversary.

Lecestria : Leicester.

Lecoria : Leicester.

lect- : leg- : lig- : to choose, pick out, read.

lect- : log- : -logue : [Gk] speech, word, proportion, reasoning.

lect- : log : logue : [Gk] to speak, choose.

ledcaptain : a humble attendant, a favorite who follows as if led by a string.

leech craft : leche craft : the application of leeches to the skin to bleed someone.  This was once a fairly common practice, purported to cure many medical conditions.

leeftijd : [Du] age.

left : lufte [Du] : sinistrous; not right.

left-handed : using the left instead of the right hand; unlucky, inauspicious.

left-to-right inscription : boustrophedon style.

leg- : lig- : lect- : to choose, pick out, read.

Leg. : Legatus.

Legacestra : Leicester.

Legacestria : Leicester.

legacy : legatum : an item bequeathed in one’s last will and testament, such as moveables and immoveables, or personal property and real estate.  A legacy might also be some abstraction, such as a particular tradition, culture, or social heritage.

legacy-hunter : a person who aspires to become an heir by flattering or treating kindly a person well endowed.

legal professionals : [1700] practitioners under the bar; pleaders; equity draftsmen; con­veyancers; students of the Inns of Court who specialized in certain functions, be­coming bar­risters and sergeants.[27]

legales : lawful.

legate : legatus : deputy, ambassador; a spiritual ambassador from the pope; a governor of a Roman province, or one of his deputies.

legatee : legatum : one who has a legacy bestowed upon him.

legation : legatio : commission, embassy; deputation.

legend : legenda : a chronicle of the lives of saints; an incredible and inauthentic narrative; an inscription on a medal or coin.

Legio VI Victrix : Conquest of the 6th Legion; York.[28]

Legio XX Victrix : Conquest of the 20th Legion; Chester.[29]

legion : legio : a body of Roman soldiers numbering about 5,000.

legislative : [genealogical adjective] made by an act of Parliament or Congress.  Siblings have sometimes been legitimated or legitimized by Parliament.  Appointments to high office often require legislative consent.  Cf. genealogical adjectives.

legislature : the power that makes laws.

legitima : [Sp] legitimate; lawful copulation, when there is no question of the marriage nuptials having preceded it.

legitimacy : a social invention designed to support patrism and patriarchy; lawfulness of birth; genuineness.  This is an invented concept, designed to support patrism and patrilineal organization.  It has no place in matrism.  Opp. illegitimacy, Sparta.

legitimate : legitimer : to make lawful, to confer the rights of legitimate birth.

legitimate : legitimus : lawfully born, born in marriage; lawful.

legitimated children : children legitimized by act of Parliament.  Such children do not usually stand in remainder to a peerage.

legitimatio : legitimate.

legitimation : lawful birth; the act of investing someone with the privileges of lawful birth.

legitimo : [Sp] legitimate.

legitimus amor : lawful love.

legitimus coetus : lawful intercourse.

legitimus nuptiæ : lawful nuptials.

Legoria : Leicester.

Legrecastrum : Leicester.

Leicester : Legacestra : Legacestria : Lecoria : Lecestria : Leogereceastreia : Legrecastrum : Licestria : Ligeria : Ligrecastrum : Legoria : Raga : Ragæ : Rage : Rhage.

Leics. : Leicestershire.

leidas las tres amonestaciones consiliarias : [Sp] having read the three conciliar banns.[30]  Cf. banns of marriage.

leíkhein : [Gk] kissing or tonguing the genitals.  Cf. likhmázein.

leisure : loisier : [Fr] vacancy of mind, freedom from business; the power to spend time according to one’s choice.

Leisure : mother of philosophy.[31]

lem- : lab- : lep- : [Gk] to take, seize.

leman : [Sx] sweetheart, mistress; gallant.

lemma : [Gk] a proposition previously assumed.  Isaac Newton often used this word.

lemures : hobgoblins, evil spirits.

Lemuria : 9, 11, 13 May : a purification ceremony when black beans were tossed at midnight to lure kinless and hungry ghosts out of one’s house.

-lence : -olence : -ulence : state or quality of being full of.

length : L : the nominal length of a ship, which is based upon hull length, and is used to calculate the net tonnage of the burden.  The length is far shorter than the total length of a ship, which includes the forward beakhead and the stern-post aft.  Cf. total length.

length : [1595-1773 et postea] L2 : L2=L1-(B*3/5) : the longer Hawkinsian length of a ship.  The length of a ship, modified by taking the traditional length (L=L1), and subtracting three-fifths of the beam (B*3/5), to arrive at a shorter figure for length (L2).  The architects under Sir John Hawkins made this change in Elizabethan times, when they reduced the beam and made longer the ship length, to make the men-of-war longer and sleeker.  The longer and sleeker designs effectively shortened the cargo hold, relative to the ship’s length, but also encouraged the use of bow and stern areas for storage of the ship’s cables and stores.  Although the Hawkinsian designs were long in use, the formula for a ship’s volumetric tonnage remained unchanged from the one used in Tudor times (L*B*D/100).

lentivirus : [1983] a retrovirus that replicates and progresses slowly; a retrovirus styled HIV-1 or HIV-2 that causes AIDS.  Cf. oncovirus.

Leo : b : the Lion, the fifth sign of the zodiac.

Leo the Lion : 24 July to 23 August.

Leogereceastreia : Leicester.

leonine : lionius : belonging to a lion, having the nature of a lion.

leopard : a spotted beast of prey.

lep- : lab- : lem- : [Gk] to take, seize.

leporarios : greyhounds.

leprosy : [1870] the disease that Victorians attempted to stop by quarantining the afflicted in the 1860s.  Lepers were made outcasts, and sent to secluded leper colonies to die.

-lepsy : [Gk] seizure, tentatio.

Lesbia : the nickname of Clodia.

lesbian : [1703] pertaining to the island of Lesbos; pertaining to the female affectional bonds represented in the poetry of Sappho of Lesbos.  Cf. amazon.

Lesbian : [1890] female homosexual.

lesbian : An, He; a gynecophilic woman; a woman belonging to technoërotic cult of Sappho of Lesbos.  The term lesbian is not the female correlative to a male gay, because the words denote radically different orientations.  Women give birth to both sexes, and have an innate proclivity to nutriment, fosterment, and the natural orders of child rearing.  As women are far more sensuous and sympathetic than men, they tend to place fewer restrictions on physical contact and personal interaction, and are thus perceived as being promiscuous in comparison to men.  Lesbianism therefore represents a morphic and fluid sensitivity to the world, wherein the lesbian can behave at times as a mother or sister, and at times as a warrior and brother.  The study of lesbians is especially difficult and irksome, because it requires the researcher to record whatever is manifest and written, but also to apprehend whatever has been hidden or clandestine in the lesbian’s life.  Motherhood is likely to be an essential part of any woman’s life, regardless of her sexual inclinations, and therefore many lesbians, including Sappho, are better known to us through the careers of their husbands and brothers, rather than their female lovers.  Throughout history, lesbian relationships have been difficult to discern and describe, or even name, because they have traditionally taken place covertly, in the interior spaces of the house, the oku of Japan, or the harem.  In medieval times, when poverty, religiosity, and outbreaks of the plague resulted in much wandering and peregrination, lesbians tended to collect themselves into tribadistic troops, who would camp around fires, and perform their ceremonies under the moon, and thus earned for themselves a reputation for witch-like secrecy and cultism.  Given the potential for both motherhood and knighthood, a lesbian may sometimes be ambisexual and heterosexual, even though her underlying emotions may be entirely and wholeheartedly gynecophilic.  It is an easy and fairly straightforward matter to identify and record the names of heterosexuals and male androphiles, because history has provided us with fairly detailed listings for such people.  Lesbians form a generational category that is fundamental to life and luxury, and therefore lesbian couples have largely remained ignonymous, secret, and hidden from the world.  Whenever lesbians have made an impression on the world, they have usually been recorded in forms incidental and pertinent to the lives of patriarchal men, and therefore we tend to know more about visible and vicious amazons, rather than reclusive and invisible ladies-in-waiting.  Literacy is also an issue, because women and slaves were often prohibited from learning to read and write.  Wherever women have acquired the patristic art of writing, they have managed to produce some very elegant expressions of affection for other women.  Witness Sei Shonagon’s adulation of the empress in her Pillow Book.

lesbian couples : Cf. same-sex couples gynecophilic.

lesbian inspiration : ondele [Af].

lesbian marriages shamanic : mateships between lesbians that were consummated in five tribes living along the Colorado River, namely the Mojave, Klamath, Maricopa, Yuma, and Cocopa.[32]

lesbian parent : Mo, MoAn, MoHe; a biological mother who has discovered her preference for homosexuality; coparent, the lesbian lover of a mother; the lesbian correlative to a heterosexual stepmother.  Cf. coparent; gay parent; sexual orientation.

lesbian queens : Christina of Sweden.

lesbians : Amy Lowell, Beebo Brinker, Bessie Smith, Christina of Sweden, Diana the Huntress, Gertrude Stein, Joan of Arc, Natalie Barney, Oya, Saint Barbara.[33]

lesbians : hetairistriai.  Cf. gynecophile.

lesbians and gays : gynecophilic women and androphilic men.  These two sexual types have often been classed together, with such words and homosexuals, sodomites, gays, uranians, et cetera, but the concepts are actually quite different.  Wherever the religious, social, and political motives of gays and lesbians happen to converge and merge, we tend to label such as gayness.  When we speak of particular people and gender-specific subjects, we tend to restrict the word gay to males, and the word lesbian to females.

Lesbos : the Greek isle where Sappho flourished and died.  Cf. Myrine amazons.

leskimies : [Fi] widower.

Leto, Themis, and Hera : the three friends.

letter : litera [Lt] : lettre [Fr] : a character in the alphabet; epistle, written message.

letter AA : Ō.

letter CC : Q.

letter -ff- : [En] letter Gh.  The double FF was sometimes substituted for the obsolete sound Gh.

letter GG : Ng; the Cadmean medial that superseded the Pelasgian letter Ng.

letter Gh : [Old En] the English sound -gh-, which originally sounded like the ch in the German Wacht.  The sound became obsolete long ago, but it survives in orthography, and is often alternatively as -ff- or -ph-, to represent the adaptations.

letter Gn : Y.

letter II : Y.

letter Kn : [Old En] the old initial k-, which once was used in Old Saxon.  This initial has become silent in old words such as knight.

letter Ng : Y.

letter Ny : Y.

letter of attorney : power of attorney.

letter -ph- : [En] letter Gh.  The -Ph- was sometimes substituted for the obsolete sound Gh.

letter Q : CC.

letter SS : Z.

letter Y : Ny, Gn, Ng.

letter Z : SS.

letterbox : a box of letters received and waiting for one’s reply.  Cf. inbox, outbox.

letters : [Hb] vowel signs; á­á®ÄáÅáÄáÄeáÆáÅáÉB

letters : [Sk, 1] letters guttural : µ¶·¸¹ Ù£ ¥¦¯° p : K.Kh.G.Gh.Ń(ń)., Ha.Ḥ., A.Ā.E.Ai., Kşa, & vowel signs µÞµçµè Ā.E.Ai.

letters : [Sk, 2] letters palatal : º»¼½¾ ÏÖ §¨ & ×ï. : C.Ch.J.Jh.Ň(ñ)., Y.Ś., I.Ī., & Śī (50), & vowel signs ßµµà, I.Ī.

letters : [Sk, 3] letters cerebral : ¿ÀÁÂà Ð× «/ : Ṭ.Ṭḥ.D.̣Dh.Ņ(ņ)., R.Ş., Ŗ.Ŗ̅., & vowel signs µãµä, Ŗ.Ŗ̅.  Cf. letters lingual.

letters : [Sk, 3] letters lingual : letters cerebral.

letters : [Sk, 4] letters dental : ÄÅÆÇÈ ¬Ø ‘ & HØ : T.Th.D.Dh.N., L.S., Ļ. & Ts., & vowel sign µ’, Ļ.

letters : [Sk, 5] letters labial : ÊËÌÍÎ Õ£ ©ª ³´ : P.Ph.B.Bh.M., V.H., U.Ū., O.Au., & vowel signs µáµâµëµì, U.Ū., O.Au.

letters : groups of letters, classified phonetically.  Cf. aicme [Ir].

letters : learning.

letters of administration : the instruments by which an administrator derives his authority to settle the estate of someone dead.

Letters of Marque and Reprisal : letters issued by an agent of the Crown to authorize a vessel to perform certain duties for the Crown.  When a private party has been clearly harmed by the subjects of another state, the Sovereign or the U.S. Congress may issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal to the party, licensing him do what is necessary to reclaim his cargo or property.  The Sovereign first authorizes the injured party to venture beyond the frontiers or marches (marque) of the kingdom, and to ‘take in return’ (reprisal) whatsoever belongs to him.  In medieval times, such Letters were typically issue to Marcher Lords, who traveled by land.  Over time, such Letters have evolved into instruments typical of maritime law, and reprisals have been generally restricted to the seizure of property on the high seas.

letters patent : literæ patentes : a written instrument containing a royal grant.

letters testamentary : the instruments issued by an officer or court authorizing the executor to take possession of the decedent’s estate for the purpose of disposition and settlement.  Cf. inquisition post mortem.

letum : death, ruin, annihilation.

Letzter Wille : [Gm] last will, testament.

leuc- : leuk- : [Gk] white.

leuk- : leuc- : [Gk] white.

lev- : light in weight.

levee : [Fr] the time of rising; the gathering of a courtly crowd around an important man in the morning.  State bedrooms at the Versailles have banisters to contain the levee attendants.

level of reference : generational level.

leveller : one who makes even; one who destroys superiority.

Leviathan : [Hb] the seagoing monster mentioned in the book of Job, commonly assumed to have been a whale; the title of a famous political essay by Thomas Hobbes.

Levine system : a system of kinship analysis based upon principles developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss.  Lévi-Strauss preferred to use abstract, mathematical models, but the term Levine system may denote simpler, genealogical methods, such as abbrevating primary kin types.  Cf. kinship analysis.

levir : the younger brother who inherits the widow of his older brother as his wife.  Cf. Henry VIII, levirate marriage, Onan, widow inheritance.

levirate marriage : Wi & HuBr; a preferential marriage, a custom that encourages a widow to marry the brother of her deceased husband; an ancient Hebrew rule whereby a widow had the right to marry her late husband’s brother or his heir in order to produce a posthumous heir for her deceased husband.  The word ‘levirate’ is probably something of a misnomer, because the rule originated in Genesis and Deuteronomy, but was contradicted and outlawed in Leviticus.  One famous incident of levirate-style marriage occurred when the widow Catherine of Aragon married second her brother-in-law Henry VIII Tudor in 1509.  Although this marital principle was established by Moses himself, the pope cited a contradictory rule in Leviticus,[34] and initially opposed the second marriage of Catherine; but he finally yielded to repeated entreaties, and gave Henry VIII a dispensation to marry.  A writer should remain cautious when using this phrase.  Although genealogies might provide us many examples of levirate-type marriages, an anthropologist would never label them as such, unless the society itself expressly preserved a rule of levirate marriage.  Although the Anglican church does not proscribe the form, for obvious historical reasons, Anglo-Americans do not actually recognize levirate marriage as a social norm.  Constantine and the Roman church prohibited it, so the levirate constituted a type of incest in medieval times.  The levirate had little or no influence on Chinese kinship.  Cf. ghost marriage, pro-husband, sister-in-law.  Opp. sororate marriage.

levite : levita : priest; one of the tribe of Levi; someone born to the office of priesthood among the Jews.

lewd : [Sx] lay, not clerical; bad, wicked, dissolute; lustful, libidinous.

lewdness : want of shame; wickedness; lustful licentiousness.

lex : statute law.  Cf. ius.

lex naturæ : law of the universe based on reason.

lex regia : royal law.

lexicography : the art of writing dictionaries.

lexicon : dictionary, a book showing the meanings of words.

LG : Low German.

LGk : Late Greek.

Li : [Ch] a Chinese surname.  Matteo Ricci adopted Li as his surname, and was known as Li Ma Tou.[35]

liaison : a love affair or sexual relationship of some significant duration.  Cf. mateship.

lib. : liber.

libel : libellus [Lt] : libelle [Fr] : lampoon, defamatory writing; satire; a written charge against someone presented in court.

libeller : lampooner, defamer.

liber : l. : lib. : book, register.  Cf. codex, tome, volumen.

liber baptizatorum : baptism book, Taufbuch.

liber burgus : free borough.

liber conjugatorum : marriage book, Traubuch.

liber exactionis : tax book; a roll of persons who paid debts, tribute, or poll taxes; Steuerbuch, Zinsbuch.

Liber Gomorrhianus : [1051] The Book of Gomorrah by Saint Peter Damian.

liber mortuorum : death book, Totenbuch.

liber sepultorum : burial book, Begräbenisbuch.

liberal : liberalis : munificent, bountiful, generous; freeborn, not of mean or low birth; becoming a gentleman.

liberal arts :  the seven liberal arts of the medieval curricula, consisting of the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, ge­ometry, astronomy, music).

liberals and conservatives : Whigs versus Tories in England, Democrats verses Republicans in the U.S.  The first administrations of the United States were conservative, aristocratic, and monarchist, following the Federalist doctrines of Alexander Hamilton, and Federalism gradually evolved into modern Republicanism.  Democratic and populist government emerged with the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, and over time became the Democratic Party.  The historian needs to exercise some care when discussing Jefferson’s movement toward government by the people, because it initially had some confounding names, such as Republican-Democratic and Democratic-Republican.

Liberate Rolls : an archive of the orders issued to the Treasury to disburse money.

libere fiant : to be freely allowed.

liber : libertus, a free man; heir general; a daughter’s son, who has presumably abandoned his mother’s maiden name and taken his father’s surname.  A sizeable maternal inheritance, or the introduction of a stepfather, might alter the son’s style, but the principle of liber remained unchanged.  The liberi represent devolutions of their mothers’ maiden name, and adoptions of their mothers’ husbands’ names.  The filii are the heirs male a patrilineage, whereas the liberi are heirs general.  Cf. alias, libera, liberi, libertinus, libertus.  Opp. filius.

liberi : free children, free men;[36] progeny, grandchildren.

liberi naturales : natural children, children born out of wedlock, bastards.  Cf. naturales liberi.

libero procreare : to procreate children.

liberorum procreandorum causa : causes or reasons for procreating children.  Registrars sometimes recorded specific reasons for procreation in a marriage register.  Cf. tabulæ matrimoniales.

liberos scribere : to write books.

liberta : freedwoman.

libertas loquendi : freedom of speech.

libertas vivendi : liberty of action.

Libertina : goddess of sensual pleasure, Venus.

libertinage : dissolution, sensuality; licentiousness of opinion.

libertine : libertin : [Fr] one at liberty, someone unconfined; one who acts without restraint; one who disregards religious precepts.

libertine : libertinus : freedman; son of a freedman.

libertinism : irreligion; the privilege or state of a freedman.

libertinus : a freedman as a member of a special class in society, as opposed to a person born free (ingenuus).  Cf. libertus.

libertus : freeman, a person born free (ingenuus), a freeman as opposed to someone manumitted, or a freedman (libertinus).

liberty: Cf. Arbeit macht frei, Die Stadtluft macht frei.

liberty : city, municipality.  When it designates a city or municipality, the word liberty is a reference to the privileges and immunities peculiar to cities, where citizens are implicitly free of the powers of lords and county sheriffs.  The term was popularized during the English Civil Wars and the Commonweath in the seventeenth century, so it may sometimes be seen in colonial documents, and it presumably became anachronistic with the Restoration (1660).

liberty : libertas [Lt] : liberté [Fr] : freedom, privilege, immunity, exemption from tyranny.  Liberty is the right to act volitionally on one’s own behalf, rather than for others.  Service and employment represent a sacrifice of liberty in exhange for recompense, usually in the form of money, or relief from debt.  Opp. slavery.

liberty torch : firestick.

libido : coitus, sexual lust or desire.

libido : lust; violent desire, appetite, or longing; ir­rational whim or caprice, e.g. ex libidine; immoderate passion or lust, e.g. ad libidinem militum; libidines, a metonym for obscenities in painting and sculpture.  Cf. lust.

libido organization : regressive individuation by principles of one’s inner reality; descent or inhalation into the genital and pregenital realms of one’s inner reality.  The five types of libido organization are named phallic, anal, oral, vaginal, and uterine.  These are aspects of the id, or inner self, and are tightly bound to the collective unconsiousness.  The five paternal-maternal aspects are inward reflections of the Oedipus complex, and form the bases of mythologies and archetypes.[37]  Opp. adolescence.

Libra : d : the Scales, balance; the seventh sign of the zodiac.

Libra the Scales : Libra the Balance : 24 September to 23 October.

librarian : librarius : one who cares for a library; one who transcribes or copies books.

libraries : Cf. Christina of Sweden.

librate of land : [1610] a parcel of land yielding one pound per year.[38]  One authority stated that a librate was equal to 240 acres (two hides or carucates), whereas a solidate or solidat equaled 12 acres, a denariat was 1 acre, and an obolat was one-half acres.[39]

Libussa and Valeska : [1100] the amazon sovereignties reported to have existed in central Europe, and to have commenced a war with an army of Bohemian girls.[40]  Cf. buggery.

Libya : the land of the Berbers, now in Morocco; an ancient region of Morocco, farther west than the present location of modern state called Libya.  The Romans used the names Cyrenaica and Tripolitania to designate the African shore now called Libya.

Libyan amazons : Medusa; Gorgons and Myrine.  Cf. Pegasus.

lic. : licenciado : [Sp] lawyer.

lic. : license.

licence to crenellate : [1851] permission to build battlements, or fortify a house.  As a custom, this practice is quite old, but the word crenellation was coined in Victorian times.[41]

license : licentia : liberty, a grant of permission; exorbitant liberty, contempt for legal restraint.

licentiate : licentiatus : a man who uses a license; someone licensed to practice medicine by the college of physicians.

licentiate : to permit, to encourage by license.[42]

Licestria : Leicester.

lictor : a petty officer who attends a consul and apprehends and punishes criminals by authority of the consul.

Lidocollina : Lincoln.

lief : [Sx] dear, beloved.

liege : lige : [Fr] the feudal relationship; entitled to feudal service, or bound to render feudal service.

liege lord : sovereign, superior lord.

liege man : liege subject, a vassal bound by a feudal tenure.

liegeman : subject.

Lieut. : Lieutenant.

lieutenant : [1596] an officer paid 4s per day in France.

lieutenant : deputy, one who acts by vicarious authority; the second in command to any superior officer of any rank.

lieutenant : the superior fencer in a fencing match.

life : [Sx] animation, vitality; human affairs, the course of events; the narrative of a past life.

Life Baron’s children : [address] the Honourable; children styled the Honourable for life, and accorded special precedence.

Life Baron’s wife : a wife ranked as Baroness, by virtue of her husband’s title; [address] Lady.

Life Baroness’ children : children styled the Honourable for life, and accorded special precedence.

life estate : life leasehold.

life leasehold : [1517] a tenancy of 7 years, based upon the biblical concept of the Sabbath year.  The leasehold term of 7 years was deemed to be a reasonable ‘life’ tenure for the leasing of demesne land, because that was the average productive life of a farmer, and it was the standard term for the discharge of any kind of debt, including indentured servitude and criminal penalty.  Cf. leasehold.

life peerages : [1958 antea]  The Lords of Appeal in Ordinary were the only Life Peers prior to passage of the Life Peerages Act of 1958.  No women were appointed as peeresses before 1958.

life peerages : [1958 et postea] men and women appointed as peers and peeresses for life in the House of Lords, in the rank of Barons and Baronesses.  A Life Peer is entitled to receive a Writ of Summons to attend Parliament, sit in the House of Lords, and vote.  A Life Peer or Peeress may have a surname as part of their title, and must always have a territorial designation suffixed to their title.  Life Peerages were promoted in an effort to reduce the influence of hereditary lords, and to increase the influence of distinguished persons of merit.

Life Peerages Act of 1958 : the act that authorized the creation of life peerages, and permitted women to sit and vote in the House of Lords as peeresses.  Lords of Appeal in Ordinary were the only life peers prior to passage of the Life Peerages Act.  Cf. Peerage Act of 1963.

life tenancy : life leasehold.

lig- : lect- : leg- : to choose, pick out, read.

ligature : typed or printed characters that join together.  Cf. \Æ, Œ\.

liger : a crossbreed of a lion and tiger.  Cf. tigon.

Ligeria : Leicester.

lighter : a large and flat-bottomed barge used to load and unload ships.

lighterage : the duty or fee assessed of a captain for using lighters to load or unload cargo.  Ships arriving at London sometimes attempted to use their own small boats to ferry cargo between ship and shore, but the lighter operators objected to this independence, and therefore won the right to assess lighterage in any case.

ligo : mattock, spade.[43]

Ligrecastrum : Leicester.

likhmázein : [Gk] kissing or tonguing the genitals.  Cf. leíkhein.

lime tree : Cf. Enaree.

limitation : seven-year statute of limitation.  Cf. Sabbatical Year.

limitour : Lymytor : a friar who had license to beg within a certain district, e.g. limitour of the Grey Friars of Lynn.

limits of genetic relationship : the four degrees of lineal relationship that impose a theoretical barrier to genetic significance.  A lineal ancestor of the 4th degree happens to be only one great-great-grandparent among sixteen, and therefore can represent no more than 6.25% of the genetic identity of the ego.  An ancestor of the 5th degree stands in an array of 32 third-great-grandparents, and therefore cannot possibly represent any more than 3.125% of his descendant’s genes.  In that genetic diversity depends upon the random inheritance of alleles, it is practically impossible for a person to be genetically related in equal proportions to each of his 16 second-great-grandparents.[44]  Within a span of five generations, it is entirely conceivable that the ego and one of his grandparents in the 4th degree might have no genes in common whatsoever (0%).  Beyond the 4th degree, this possibility of having absolutely no genetic links to certain ancestors only increases.  Cf. diagram, genogram.

limits of kinship : the six degrees of lineal relationship that mark the outer limits or boundaries of any kinship system.  Western societies have generally concurred that, for all purposes civil, legal, or canonical, there is no practical reason to trace kinship any farther back than six (6) ascending degrees, and no farther forward than six descending degrees.  Thus, the Roman church and the Anglo-Saxons believed that they had obligations even to their sixth cousins, and they gradually expanded their kinship terminology to that level.  Chinese norms of matrilateral cross cousin marriage required a cycle of five (5) generations before the series of marriages could return to their starting point, because the exogamous hūnyīn groups were four in number.  Therefore, the Chinese limit of kinship remains fixed at four (4) ascending and four descending degrees.  The classical Chinese and Roman kinship systems both recognized the 4th degree of ascent or descent, but the kinship terminologies of both classical Chinese and Latin commonly stopped at that point.  Cf. pedigree.

limits of social descent : the perimeters for social and commercial life, defined mainly by common activities, sex rôles, lines of genetic descent, kinship, and traces of historical connections.  The consciousness of social descent depends mainly upon the power and capacity for remembrance, and it has far broader criteria for inclusion than lineal or generational kinship.  Bilateral and social descent tends to divide people by sex rôles, and bond them together by same-sex ethnic ties.  Lineal and social descent tends to divide people by vertical groups of same-sex consanguineal relatives and transtemporal correspondents, and tends to bond brothers and sisters together in a parallel fashion by relaxed rules of descent grouping.  Lineage societies often organize themselves by sex rôles, but they tend to permit ancestral tracings that are both unilineal and ambilineal or nonunilineal, so they resemble generational systems or bifurcate merging systems of kinship and ramage.  Thus, a lineage society will extend its historical heritage back to extremely remote degrees, to the 5th ascending degree and beyond, or even beyond the genetic limitations of the 4th degree, and even beyond the theoretical kinship limitations of the 6th degree.  Cf. clan, house, lineage society, moiety, phratry, sib, tribe.

Lincolinum : Lincoln.

Lincoln : Lidocollina : Lincolnia : Lincolinum : Lindecolina : Lindecollinum : Lindocollinum : Lindecolina : Lindum : Lindum Colonia : Nicole.[45]

Lincolnia : Lincoln.

Lincolnscr’ : Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire : Lincolnscr’.

Lindecollinum : Lincoln.

Lindocollinum : Lincoln.

Lindonium : London.

Lindum : Lindum Colonia : Lincoln.

line- : line.

line : linea : progeny, family, a lines of direct ancestors or descendants.  Cf. pedigree.

line : a rank of soldiers; an array of ships, often front-line warships.

line : one-tenth (1/10) of an inch; the decimal subdivision of an inch.

line of battle : the front line of warships, maneuvering to engage an enemy.  Cf. ship of the line.

linea : line, lineage.

linea ascendens : linea ascendentium : an ascending lineage of direct ancestors; aufsteigende Linie [Gm].  Cf. linea superior.  Opp. linea descendens.

linea ascendentium : ascending lineage.

linea collateralis : collaterals, collaterales; collateral line, a line of descent connected to the proband’s line through some common ancestor; Seitenlinie.  Opp. linea ascendens et linea descendens, linea superior et linea inferior.

linea descendens : linea descendentium : descending lineage; absteigende Linie.  Cf. linea inferior.  Opp. linea ascendens.

linea descendentium : line of descent.

linea inferior : inferior lineage, descending lineage.  Cf. linea descendens.  Opp. linea superior.

linea superior : superior lineage, ascending lineage.  Cf. linea ascendens.  Opp. linea inferior.

lineage : a unilineal descent group with vertical depth.

lineage : linage : [Fr] race, progeny, family; ancestry, extraction; all of the unilineal descendants of a known ancestor or ancestress.  A lineage is a consanguineal kin group that practices rules of unilineal descent, and its membership consists only of persons who can actually trace their line of descent to a common ancestor.  A lineage generally controls property and land rights, or economic rights in general, and often controls political and religious offices, so lineage membership permits inheritance to property, and enables succession to offices.  The majority of lineages are exogamous, so the members must marry outside them.  This kinship criterion or dimension is closely tied to patrism and the invention of fatherhood.  Cf. agnatic relatives, enatic relatives, fatherhood, kinship dimensions, matrilineal, patrilineal, prosapia, uterine relatives.

lineage characteristic : perpetuity, the quality of continuing in existence so long as one lineage member survives.  The kindred comprise a temporary group, shorter lived than a lineage.  Cf. kindred characteristic.  Opp. temporary kindred.

lineage mates : two or more persons belonging to the same unilineage.

lineage principle : a criterion for membership among kindred.  Cf. kinship principles.

lineage society : a lineage society or heritage society that admits members on the basis of their documented proofs of lineal descent from some particular class of individuals in the past.  The term lineage in this context is somewhat misleading, because it is not restricted to unilineal descent.  Lineage books that describe lines of descent, as well as membership applications, are very often ambilineal or nonunilineal, and therefore the societies probably ought to be styled ramage societies rather than lineage societies.  Cf. Colonial Dames of America, Daughters of the American Revolution, First Families of Virginia, Order of the Crown of Charlemagne, ramage, Sons of the American Revolution.

lineages : Cf. convergent lineages.

lineages : kutumali [Juang].

lineages and clans : societies that exhibit one or more of the unilineal characteristics, namely (1) a tendancy to classify members as siblings, (2) a restriction of membership to generation through a common ancestor, or to meritorious achievement, and (3) complementary filiation, a linkage to another lineage or clan through a parent.[46]  Some American anthropologists prefer to use the word sibs in place of clans, preferring to reserve the concept of clan for a coresident group connected by lineage mates.[47]

lineages and segments : the minimal and maximal lineages, together with the minor and major segments of the minimal lineage.  A minimal lineage may simply consist of a man and his children, or a woman and her children, for it basically represents a consanguineal link between two reciprocals standing in senior and junior generations.  The minimal lineage can be restricted in meaning to its smallest, minor segment, or it may be extended to include others who belong to its major segment.  Weddings and rites of passages are typical occasions on which members of the major segment gather together.  The maximal lineage represents a large group commonly descended from the same ancestor, and it is normally such a lineage that allies its members for the purpose of warfare.[48]

lineal : linealis : delineated; descending in a direct genealogy; hereditary, derived from ancestors; allied by direct descent.

lineal descent : a kinship system organized by ascending and descending consanguineal relationships through either males or females, patrilineally or matrilineally.  Its popular complement is generational descent, wherein descent is reckoned by sex rôles.  Opp. bilateral descent.

lineal kin : kin who are linked to the ego through a direct line of descent.  This category normally includes the ego’s siblings.  Opp. collateral kin.

lineal relatives : consanguine kinsfolk directly ascending or descending from the ego.  Opp. collateral relatives.

lineality : a descent-oriented concept of relationship; the agism and sexism that supports patrism and patriarchy.  Lineality requires remembrance or faith, because it postulates common descent from dead ancestors, and therefore forms a spiritual basis for patrism.  Opp. laterality.

lineality and laterality : vertical lines of descent from ancestors, and horizontal orders among living relatives.  Collaterality is a combination of these two aspects.  Cf. collaterality.

lines of descent : the preëminent line of descent organized by the lineally stressed sex, together with the other collateral lines which are not lineally stressed.

ling : linghe [Du] : a kind of sea fish.

ling : lyng, lynge.  The family le Strange paid 3d for a lyng in 1519.[49]  Sir Nicholas paid £5 for 50 lings on 1548/2/25.[50]

lingere mentulam : to lick the penis.  Cf. cunnum lingere.

lingo : fello, to lick.

link : the consanguineal link of a parent, sibling, or child.  Opp. marriage bond.

link : to unite, conjoin; to join by contract or confederacy.

link woman : FaSi=FaSb; ego’s father’s sister

link woman : Mo=FaWi; ego’s mother, the spouse of ego’s father.[51]

linkisch : [Gm] awkward.

links : linksrum : [Gm] left, in the left direction; a colloquial idiom signifying homosexuality.  Cf. gauche, sinister.

lion : leo : a quaduped beast, a sign of the zodiac.  Cf. liger, tiger, tigon.

lion couchant : a seated lion.

lion dormant : a sleeping lion, reclining lion.

Lion of Chaeronea : a statue erected around 200 bc to commemorate the Sacred Band of Thebes.

lion passant : a walking lion.

lion rampant : a lion standing an his hind feet and holding its front paws upward, as if to attack.

lioness : she-lion.

lip- : [Gk] fat.

lipodystrophy : an abnormal redistribution of body fat, whereby fat is lost from the face and limbs, but accumulated in the trunk of the body.  Fat tends to accumulate in the abdomen and the upper back, around the neck.

lipoprotein : a compound of proteins and lipids or fatty substances.

lips : Cyprian petals.

lisping: awlispian : a mode of English speech mentioned by Shakespeare and Chaucer.[52]

litany : [Gk] a form of supplicatory prayer.

lite : lith- : [Gk] stone.

liter- : letter, literature.

literature : literatura : learning, skill in letters.

lith- : lite : [Gk] stone.

litho- : [Gk] stone, lapis, saxum, nucleus, gemma.

littera : letter of the alphabet.

littera : epistle, epistula.

litteræ : letters.

litteris : by ——; authored by ——; per litteris ——.

litteras ad hominem dare : to write a letter to a person.

Little Rascals Daycare Center : [1989-1997] a witchhunt in the Carolinas, centered upon 7 female and male defendants charged with 429 counts of child abuse and molestation.  Initially the defendants were jailed, but all charges were dropped by agreement in 1997.  Cf. witchhunts.

liturgy : [Gk] formulary of public devotions.

liv. : lived, living.

liv. abt. : lived about.

livelihood : maintenance, means of living.

liver diseases : hepititis A, hepititis B, hepititis C.

livery : livrer : [Fr] release from wardship, the act of giving possession; the writ by which someone obtains possession; the clothes given to servants.

liveryman : someone who wears a livery; a low-ranking servant; a freeman of a company in London.

LL : Late Latin.

ll. : lines.  Cf. pp.

LL.D. : legum doctor : doctors of laws, canon or civil.

loadmanage : pilotage, the art or skill of navigation.

loc- : place.

loc. cit. : loco citato.

loca infera : lower places, places on earth be­longing to mankind.

loca supera : upper places, heavenly places.

loca supra : upper places, heavenly places, places of the sky belonging to the gods.

local descent group : segment.

local descent groups unnamed : Cf. bok, descent system patrilineal, kutumali.

locarium : rent for a place.

location : locatio : situation with respect to place.

loci muliebres :  women’s places.

locket : a band of metal or leather that fastens together a scabbard.

loco : to place, lay; to let for hire, farm out.

loco citato : l.c. : in the place cited.  Cf. loco laudato.

loco incognito : in a place unknown.

loco laudato : loco ladato : l.l. : place unknown; place in dispute; place undetermined.  Cf. loco citato.

loco natus : of noble birth.  Cf. nobili genere.

Locri : motherland.

Locrians : a people who considered Aphrodite to be their ancestress.  Cf. Epizephyrion, Zephyritis.

locus : place; position, rank.

locus occultus : hidden passage.[53]

locut- : loqu- : to speak.

log- : lect- : -logue : [Gk] speech, word, proportion, reasoning.

log : logue : lect- : [Gk] to speak, choose.

logo- : [Gk] word, verbum, vocabulum, nomen, dictum, vox.

logogram : word sign.

logo-syllabic phonography : Sumerian, Egyptian, Hittite, and Chinese, the four ancient writing systems that gave rise to syllabic and alphabetic scripts.  Cf. phonography, semasiography.

-logue : lect- : log- : [Gk] speech, word, proportion, reasoning.

logue : log : lect- : [Gk] to speak, choose.

-logy : [Gk] science of, scientia, ars, doctrina, disciplina.

-logy : [Gk] science of.

Lolita syndrome : the state of having a strong appetite for sex, but no desire for intimacy, tenderness, and emotional involvement.  The name derived from Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.[54]

lollepot : [Du] lesbian.

lollepotten : [Du] lesbians.

Loncastria : Lancaster.

Lond. : London.

Londinium : London.

Londinium Augusta : London.

Londinum : London.

London : Lond. : Augusta Trinobantum : Augusta : Landinium : Lindonium : Londinia : Londinium : Londinium Augusta : Londonia : Lundinium : Lundonia : Trenovantum.  Cf. franchises of the City of London, prostitution in London.

Londonia : London.

lone : single, unmarried; solitary, having no company; in one’s widowhood.

long : longitude.

longeavus : ancient, of great age.

Longfd. : Longford, Ireland.

-loo : [Du] a suffix typical of Dutch surnames and place names.

loqu- : locut- : to speak.

lord : [Sx] ruler, governor, monarch; master, supreme person; husband, someone who heads a business; overseer; nobleman, a peer of England; baron; an honorary title applied to such officers as the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Mayor, and Lord Chief Baron.

lord : laird [Sc].

Lord Advocate of Scotland : [formal address] The Right Honorable the Lord Advocate; [official address] Her Majesty’s Advocate for Scotland; [salutation] Sir.  The contrary to what one might expect, Lord Advocate is not saluted as lord, but instead by the officious sir.

Lord High Chancellor : the second peer of the United Kingdom.

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland : [obsolete address] His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant.  The office was typically awarded to titled nobility, and therefore it was customary to style a ducal holder as His Grace the Lord Lieutenant, and to salute each holder by the courtesy titles and salutations customary for each man’s peerage.

Lord Mayor : [address] The Right Honorable the Lord Mayor; [salutation] My Lord; [reference] Your Lordship.  The three Lords Mayor were Lord Mayor of London, Lord Mayor of York, and Lord Mayor of Dublin.

lord of a manor : esquire, squire.

Lord of Parliament : [1660 Sc] the proper term for Scottish representative in the House of Lords.  Cf. baron in England.

Lord of Session in Scotland : [address] The Honorable Lord ——; [salutation] My Lord; [reference] Your Lordship.

Lord Provost of Edinburgh : [address] The Right Honorable the Lord Provost.  After the Revolution, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh was always a member of the Privy Council of Scotland, and therefore his title signifies superiority with respect to the other two Lords Provost of Scotland.

Lord Provost of Glasgow : [address] The Honorable the Lord Provost.

Lord Provost of Perth and Aberdeen : [address] The Lord Provost.

lording : master, sir; an ancient form of address; a diminutive of lord.

lordlike : proud, haughty, insolent; befitting a lord.

Lords of Appeal in Ordinary : life peers appointed by the Crown to sit in the House of Lords.  These life peerages would disappear if ever the monarchy were abolished, but the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary are normally allowed to hold office in the House of Lords, subject to the continuing approval of both Houses of Parliament.  If both Houses of Parliament call for the dismissal of a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, he must retire.[55]  These were the only Life Peers prior to the Life Peerages Act of 1958.

Lords of Her Majesty’s Treasury : [collective address] The Honorable the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury.  These lords form an inseparable entity, and therefore may not be addressed individually, because none are titled separately.

Lords of Session in Scotland : [1905] Senators of the College of Justice in Scotland.  Upon appointment to the Bench, such senators take the judicial title of Lord, and become entitled to prefix Honourable.  A Royal Warrant issued in February 1905 permitted retired Lords of Session to retain the title Honourable Lord, and permitted their wives to retain the title Lady during the lord’s lifetime, and during widowhood.[56]  These rules do not apply to the Lord Justice-General and Lord Justice-Clerk, for they are Officers of State.

Lords Provost of Scotland : the Lords Provost of Edinburgh, of Glasgow, and of Perth and Aberdeen.

Lords Spiritual : the 26 ecclesiastical members of the House of Lords; the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and 24 Bishops who serve by rotation.  The inferior group of 24 Bishops always includes the Bishop of London, Bishop of Durham, and Bishop of Winchester.  An archbishop or bishop ceases to be a peer of Parliament upon resigning his see.  The House of Lords has adopted the custom of bestowing baronies upon retired Archbishops.

lordship : power, dominion, seigniory; an honorary title applied to a noble but not to a duke; a title used for a judge or other person in authority.

lotium : liquid for washing; urine used for washing clothes, cleaning the teeth, et cetera.  Cf. urina.

lottery : lotterie : [Fr] distribution of prizes by chance; sortilege, a game of chance.

Louis II de Bourbon et de Condé : the Grande Condé.

Louis Joseph, Duc de Vendôme : Maréchal de Vendôme.

love : [Sx] passion, friendship, kindness, goodwill; courtship, tenderness; parental care.

love : amor, a love affair; caritas, affection, esteem, honor, high regard; pietas, dutiful conduct, dutifulness; piety, de­votion; respect for human qualities, compas­sion from the gods; patriotism; studium, study, having enthusiasm for some subject.  Cf. Sullivanian love.

Love : god or goddess of love.  The god of love is Cupido or Amor.  The goddess of love is Venus.

love : the four types of human love, namely familial love, hospitable love, friendly love, and erotic love.[57]

love of the cut sleeve : Cf. Han Ai Ti and Dong Xian.

love that dare not speak its name : homosexuality; the famous phrase written by Lord Alfred Douglas in “Two Loves.”

loveday : a day fixed for the amicable settlement of differences.

loveknot : an intricate figure said to represent the interchange of amorous affections.

lovelass : sweetheart.

loveless : without love; void of sexual passion.

loveletter : a letter continuing courtship.

lovelock : a type of curl fashionable among men in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, roughly 1558-1625.  Fashions such as this illustrate well the mutability of gender rôles.

lovelorn : forsaken of one’s love.

lovemonger : matchmaker, one who promotes love affairs.

lover : Sp, Hu, Wi, Cc, Ct, Ph, Er, An, He; one in love; one who likes anything; an affectionate partner or spouse of a mateship.

lover, elder : Sp(e), Ph, An.

lover, younger : Sp(y), Er, He.

lover’s leap : Cf. Hero and Leander, Sappho.

lovesong : a song expressing love.

lovesuit : courtship.

Lowell and Russell : Amy Lowell and Ada Russell alias Peter Russell, a lesbian couple.  Amy always called her lover Ada by the pseudonym Peter, but the ladies played opposite rôles in real life, for Amy was the butch, whereas Ada alias Peter was the femme.[58]

lower class : [Am] the homeless; the disenfranchised; the underemployed and unemployed; people bereft of tenancy or land ownership.

Lower Paleozoic era : a long period of prehistoric time, comprising the Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian periods.

lowercase letter : minuscule.

loyalist : royalist; one remaining loyal to a monarch during a civil debate or disturbance, or during a revolution; an opponent of the American Revolution (1775-1783); a supporter of the House of Stuart, before or after the regicide (1649) or the Glorious Revolution (1688).

loyalty : loiaulté : [Fr] fidelity to a lover or lady; faith adherence to a prince or cause.

loyalty : steadfast faithfulness that does not falter or waver, even when the loyalist encounters some temptation to betray, desert, or renounce his lord.  Cf. allegiance, fidelity, fealty, devotion, piety.

lozenge : losenge : [Fr] rhomb; a diamond-shaped, four-cornered figure upon which are painted the arms of a woman.  English heralds use the escutcheon and lozenge to show sexual difference, but the custom varies in continental countries.

lozengy : with a field or charge covered with lozenges.

LS : Sainte Bible, translated by Louis Segond.

Lt : Latin.

Lt. : Lieutenant.

luc- : light; to shine.

Lucas : Luke.

Lucca : Lucifer : brother of Diana; the god who fell from grace; he god purportedly worshipped by William II Rufus.  Cf. Diana.

luce: lucius : [Gk, Lt] a fully grown pike.  A depiction of this fish was popular in heraldry.

Lucia : Lucy.

lud- : lus- : to play, mock.

ludas : foreplay; unspecified physical play that falls short of intercourse.

ludimagister : schoolmaster.

ludus : game, a sexual game; gay cruising.[59]

lugar : [Sp] place.

lumbago : rheumatic pain in the back.

lumbulus : male sexual organs.

lumbus : loins, the source of procreation often named in Christian Latin; genitalia.  Cf. delumbo.

lumin : light.

Luna : the moon, the first of seven planets, which appears to complete its course every 28 days.

lunacy : luna : madness, a type of dementia said to be caused by the moon.

lunar correction : Cf. epact.

lunatic : mad, with an imagination influenced by the moon; madman.

lunation : [150 bc] lunar month, now valued at 29.53059 days.  Hipparchus of Rhodes (floruit 150 bc) quadrupled the Callippic Cycle, and thereby managed to calculate the lunation at 29.53058 days, a very close approximation of our present value.  Cf. Callippic Cycle, Golden Number, Metonic Cycle, year sub 150 bc.

lunch : [12 o’clock noon] a light or moderate meal taken at midday, usually during an hour-long lunch break.  Lunch eventually replaced dinner as the noontime meal.  Cf. dinner, supper.

Lundinium : London.

Lundonia : London.

Lunes : [Sp] Monday.

Lung : [Ch] a Chinese surname.  Nicolaus Lombardi used the Chinese name Lung Wha Min.[60]

lung fever : pneumonia.

luni- : moon.

Lunia : Lancashire.

lure : the artificial prey or bait to which a falconer induces his hawk to return, as the first step of training.  The falconer rewarded his hawk, often with flesh, each time it returned to the lure, so it became a familiar and attractive object of the hawk’s attention.  Cf. hawks, quarry.

lus- : lud- : to play, mock.

lust : [Sx] carnal desire, inclination; cupitas, cupidus.  Cf. cupiditas, cupidity, impudicus, libido, robust, robustness.

lust : concupisereto, to lust after, desire eagerly, covet, endeavour af­ter, aim at.

lustra : brothel.

lustre : luster : lustra : [Ir] a Druidic 5-year cycle.

lustrum : a space of five years; roughly a period of fifty months, or four years and two months.

Lutheran : [1519] denoting the doctrine of the Reformer Martin Luther, or the followers of Luther.  Luther held to be false religions Judaism, Roman Catholicism, and Islām.

lūtī : [Ar] gay.  Perhaps it means follower of Lot.[61]

Lux. : Luxembourg : Luxemburg.

luxuria : luxury.

luxuriare : deponant luxurio; to be luxuriant, rank, abundant in growth; membra luxurio, to swell or grow; to frisk, be sportive; to run riot; to be dis­solute, capua luxurians felicitate.

luxury : luxuria : lust, lewdness; addiction to pleasure, voluptuousness; luxuriance, sexual exhuberance; rankness; exhuberant growth; excess; prodigality; dissipation, extravagance.  Roman catholic manuals for penance employed the word luxury as a euphemism for homosexuality, or eros.

LXX : Septuagint (LXX).

ly- : [Gk] to loosen.

-ly : [Sx] field; a suffix for a place name denoting a field.

Lycia : Creten migrants who seated themselves at Paris, in Asia Minor.  Lycia was the country where the marital customs were partly Cretan and partly Carian, and where the people took their surnames from their mothers.  Freewomen who married slaves could do so without risking the free status of their children, but freemen who married women or slaves could expect their progeny to fall into servitude.[62]

Lycians : [1500 bc] a Mediterranean race that originated in Crete.  The actors of legend were Minos, his youngest brother Sarpedon, and Belerophon the Peloponnesian.

lymph node swelling : a condition sometimes indicative of chronic infections, such as anthrax, brucella, straphylocossus, and tuberculosis.

lyng : ling. 


[1] According to Duald Mac Firbis, bard of the O’Briens.  Roderick O’Flaherty, Ogygia.  Graves 1948, edition 1966:  116-117.

[2] Eglinton 1964:  358.

[3] Gurney, 561.15.

[4] Scribner’s Monthly, 1877/9:  14.5.  EGH 1997/9-10:17.

[5] Scribner’s Monthly, 1877/9:  14.5.  EGH 1997/9-10:17.

[6] Scribner’s Monthly, 1877/9:  14.5.  EGH 1997/9-10:17.

[7] Shakespeare, cited by Johnson.

[8] Allen.  Grahn 1990:  62.

[9] LIMO.

[10] Davis 1924:  617.

[11] HL:  188.

[12] Feudal Aids, 1431.  Debrett’s Peerage, 1990.

[13] Evans.  Grahn 1990:  118.

[14] Boswell 1980:  216.

[15] Boswell 1980:  213.

[16] Davis 1924:  618.

[17] Oestmann 1994:  124-125.

[18] Le Strange Collection, R.2.  Oestmann 1994:  124.

[19] Oestmann 1994:  121.

[20] Green 1889:  2.123.

[21] F.R.H. Du Boulay, “Who were farming the English Demesne,” 49.  Oestmann 1994:  62.

[22] F.R.H. Du Boulay, “Who were farming the English Demesne,” 49.  Oestmann 1994:  62.

[23] Oestmann 1994:  62.

[24] Oestmann 1994:  59.

[25] Oestmann 1994:  63.

[26] J. Thorold Rogers.  Oestmann 1994:  63.

[27] Plucknett 1956:  226.

[28] Everton 1971:  195.

[29] Everton 1971:  195.

[30] Flores and Ludwig 1993:  35.

[31] Hobbes, idem.

[32] Grahn 1990:  306.

[33] Grahn 1990:  46.

[34] Leviticus, 20.21.

[35] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[36] Boswell 1988:  27.n55.

[37] Fabricius 1989:  227.

[38] HL:  66.

[39] W. Folkingham, 1610.  OED.

[40] Aeneas Piccolomini, Historia Bohemica.  Pope Pius II.  Diner 1965:  139.

[41] HL:  218.

[42] L’Estrange.  Johnson, 431.

[43] HL:  62.

[44] Schusky 1972:  23.

[45] Everton 1971.

[46] Schusky 1972:  29.

[47] Schusky 1972:  73.

[48] Schusky 1972:  71.

[49] HHA 1519.

[50] Gurney, 561.8.

[51] Parkin 1997:  105.

[52] Grahn 1990:  226.

[53] LINC.

[54] Eglinton 1964:  484.

[55] Debrett’s Peerage, 1990:  58.

[56] Debrett’s Peerage, 1990:  61.

[57] Plutarch, Moralia, 758D.  Boswell 1980:  33.

[58] Grahn 1990:  145.

[59] Boswell 1980:  253.

[60] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[61] Boswell 1980:  41.

[62] Herodotus.  Diner 1965:  233.

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