Landīca
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Landīca is the Latin term for the clitoris
The ancient Romans had medical knowledge of the clitoris, and their native word for it was landīca. This appears to have been one of the most obscene words in the entire Latin lexicon. It is alluded to, but does not appear, in literary sources, except in the Priapeia 79, which calls it misella landica, the "poor little clitoris". It does, however, appear in graffiti.
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Etymology
The ultimate etymology of landīca is unknown.
Usage
Not even the poets Catullus and Martial, whose frankness is notorious, ever refer to landīca. In a letter to a friend, Cicero discusses which words in Latin are potentially obscene or subject to obscene punning, and there hints at the word landīca by quoting an unintentionally obscene utterance made in the senate:
- . . . hanc culpam maiorem an illam dicam?
- "shall I say that this or that was the greater fault?" with illam dicam echoing the forbidden word. Note that the "m" at the end of "illam" was pronounced like "n" before the following "d."
The word landīca is found in Roman graffiti: peto [la]ndicam fvlviae ("I seek Fulvia's clitoris") appears on a leaden projectile found at Perugia, while a derivative word is found in Pompeii:evpla laxa landicosa; it is not clear here whether landicosa meant that Eupla had an unusually strong libido or a large clitoris. A large clitoris was an object of horror and fascination to the ancient Romans; Martial's epigram I.90 alludes to a woman who uses her clitoris as a penis in a lesbian encounter.
Synonyms and metaphors
Allusions to the clitoris in the Satires of Juvenal call it crista, "crest".
In the Romance languages
Landīca survived in Old French landie (extremely rare), and in Romanian lindic.
