Word.ws English Dictionary

lucus a non lucendo

lucus a non lucendo phrase: a form of illogical argument asserting that two things are related because they have opposite significations.

Phrase

lucus a non lucendo

  1. A form of illogical argument asserting that two things are related because they have opposite significations.
    • This Sun, into which Jones was now conducted, was truly named, as lucus a non lucendo; for it was an apartment into which the sun had scarce ever looked.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, Book VIII
    • BUDGE, strong drink; […] Probably a corruption of BOOZE. Probably also, on the lucus a non lucendo principle, because its use made one incapable of budging.1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Origin of lucus a non lucendo

From Latin lūcus ā nōn lūcendō, literally "a grove from not shining", referring to Roman rhetorician Quintilian's assertion, in his Institutio Oratoria, that Latin lūcus (“grove”) derived from lūceō (“to shine”), because groves were dark places and did not shine.

Questions about lucus a non lucendo

What does lucus a non lucendo mean?
Lucus a non lucendo means a form of illogical argument asserting that two things are related because they have opposite significations.
What part of speech is lucus a non lucendo?
Lucus a non lucendo is a phrase.

Words near lucus a non lucendo in the dictionary

  1. lucumo
  2. lucumone
  3. lucumones
  4. lucumos
  5. lucuntu
  6. lucus a non lucendo
  7. Lucutan
  8. lucy
  9. Lucy Cavendish
  10. Lucy Stoner
  11. Lucy Stoners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lucus a non lucendo (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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