English

Noun

lustrum ‎(plural lustra or lustrums)

1. (Roman religion) A lustration or ceremonial purification of all the ancient Roman people, performed every five years, after the taking of the census.
2. A period of five years.
   • 1835, Edgar Allan Poe, Morella, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Folio Society 2007, p. 31:

     Thus passed away two lustra of her life, and, as yet, my daughter remained nameless upon the earth.

   • 1985, John Fowles, A Maggot:

     Q. Now, sir, if you would be so kind as to guess upon his age. A. Forty five years are certain. I would guess a lustrum more.

Synonyms

• quinquennium

Translations

Latin

Etymology 1

Alternation from earlier dustrum (rare), from Ancient Greek δύστρον ‎(dústron) from δύω ‎(dúō, “to plunge”).

Noun

lustrum n ‎(genitive lustrī); second declension

1. bog, morass, place where boars and swine wallow
2. (chiefly in the plural) den of wild beasts; wood, forest
3. (chiefly in the plural) (a place of) debauchery

Inflection

Second declension.

Synonyms

• volutabrum

Etymology 2

• From Old Latin *loustrom. Some refer to Proto-Indo-European *lowkstro-, from *lewk- ‎(“to make bright”).
• Others refer to lavō ‎(“to wash”).^[1]

Noun

lūstrum n ‎(genitive lustrī); second declension

1. a purificatory sacrifice or lustration performed every five years by the censor
2. a period of five years

Inflection

Second declension.

Derived terms

• lūstrō

References

• lustrum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• lustrum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• LUSTRUM in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “lustrum”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to complete the censorship (by certain formal purificatory ceremonies = lustro faciendo): lustrum condere (Liv. 1. 44. 2)
    
• lustrum in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lustrum in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Andrew L. Sihler (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press
• Julius Pokorny (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, in 3 vols, Bern, München: Francke Verlag

1. ↑ “lustro 3” in: Alberto Nocentini, Alessandro Parenti, “l'Etimologico — Vocabolario della lingua italiana”, Le Monnier, 2010, ISBN 978-88-00-20781-2