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1898, Rudyard Kipling, “.007”, in The Day's Work, New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., page 243:
A locomotive is, next to a marine engine, the most sensitive thing man ever made; and No. .007, besides being sensitive, was new. The red paint was hardly dry on his spotless bumper-bar, his headlight shone like a fireman’s helmet, and his cab might have been a hard-wood-finish parlour. They had run him into the round-house after his trial—he had said good-bye to his best friend in the shops, the overhead travelling-crane—the big world was just outside; and the other locos were taking stock of him.
mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto III”, in Inferno [Hell], lines 16–18; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2nd revised edition, Florence: publ.Le Lettere, 1994:
["]Noi siam venuti al loco ov’i’ t’ ho detto / che tu vedrai le genti dolorose / c’ hanno perduto il ben de l’intelletto".
"We have come to the place wherein I told you that you will see the tormented people who have lost the good of intellect."
1350s, anonymous author, “Prologo e primo capitolo [Preface and first chapter]”, in Cronica [Chronicle] (overall work in Old Italian); republished as Giuseppe Porta, editor, Anonimo romano - Cronica, Adelphi, 1979, →ISBN:
le memorie se facevano con scoiture in sassi e pataffii, li quali se ponevano nelle locora famose dove demoravano moititudine de iente(Rome)
accounts were made through incisions on rocks and gravestones, which were placed in famed places, where moltitudes of people lived
c.1260s, Brunetto Latini, chapter VII, in Il tesoretto [The small treasure], lines 769–774; collected in Luigi Di Benedetto, editor, Poemetti allegorico-didattici del secolo XIII [Allegorical-didactical poems from the 13th century], Bari: Laterza, 1941, page 25:
Questi hanno per ofizio che lo bene, e lo vizio, li fatti, e le favelle ritornano ale celle ch’i’ v’agio nominate, e loco son pensate.
Their task is that the good, and the vices, the facts, and the words return to the spaces I have mentioned, and there they're thought.
1At least one use of the archaic "sigmatic future" and "sigmatic aorist" tenses is attested, which are used by Old Latin writers; most notably Plautus and Terence. The sigmatic future is generally ascribed a future or future perfect meaning, while the sigmatic aorist expresses a possible desire ("might want to"). 2At least one rare poetic syncopated perfect form is attested.
(ambiguous) pleasant districts; charming surroundings: loca amoena, amoenitas locorum
(ambiguous) to be favourably situated: opportuno loco situm or positum esse
(ambiguous) distant places: loca longinqua
(ambiguous) to leave a place: discedere a, de, ex loco aliquo
(ambiguous) to leave a place: egredi loco; excedere ex loco
(ambiguous) to quit a place for ever: decedere loco, de, ex loco
(ambiguous) not to stir from one's place: loco or vestigio se non movere
(ambiguous) to treat as one's own child: aliquem in liberorum loco habere
(ambiguous) my position is considerably improved; my prospects are brighter: res meae meliore loco, in meliore causa sunt
(ambiguous) how are you getting on: quo loco res tuae sunt?
(ambiguous) at this point the question arises: hoc loco exsistit quaestio, quaeritur
(ambiguous) our (not noster) author tells us at this point: scriptor hoc loco dicit
(ambiguous) Cicero says this somewhere: Cicero loco quodam haec dicit
(ambiguous) to set an ambuscade: insidias collocare, locare (Mil. 10. 27)
(ambiguous) to place some one in ambush: aliquem in insidiis locare, collocare, ponere
(ambiguous) to dwell in a certain place: domicilium (sedem ac domicilium) habere in aliquo loco
(ambiguous) to contract for the building of something: opus locare
(ambiguous) to give, undertake a contract for building a house: domum aedificandam locare, conducere
(ambiguous) of high rank: summo loco natus
(ambiguous) of illustrious family: nobili, honesto, illustri loco or genere natus
(ambiguous) of humble, obscure origin: humili, obscuro loco natus
(ambiguous) from the lowest classes: infimo loco natus
(ambiguous) a knight by birth: equestri loco natus or ortus
(ambiguous) to occupy a very high position in the state: in altissimo dignitatis gradu collocatum, locatum, positum esse
(ambiguous) to receive tenders for the construction of temples, highroads: locare aedes, vias faciendas (Phil. 9. 7. 16)
(ambiguous) to let out public works to contract: locare opera publica
(ambiguous) to reconnoitre the ground: loca, regiones, loci naturam explorare
(ambiguous) to occupy the high ground: occupare loca superiora
(ambiguous) to encamp: castra ponere, locare
(ambiguous) in a favourable position: idoneo, aequo, suo (opp. iniquo) loco
(ambiguous) to drive the enemy from his position: loco movere, depellere, deicere hostem (B. G. 7. 51)
(ambiguous) to abandon one's position: loco excedere
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 347
Inherited from Old Spanishloco, perhaps from Andalusian Arabicلَوْقَاء(láwqa), from Arabicلَوْقَاء(lawqāʔ), feminine singular form of أَلْوَق(ʔalwaq, “stupid”), by reinterpreting the final Andalusian Arabic -a as the Ibero-Romance -a and back-forming the masculine with -o. Edward Roberts thinks the term is related to Arabicلَاق(lāq, “to soften”), but this verb is of root l-y-q, not l-w-q like أَلْوَق(ʔalwaq). Alternatively, derived from Ancient Greekγλαυκός(glaukós, “clear”). Compare Portugueselouco and Sicilianloccu.
^ Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN