English
launce
Launce comes from Italian lancia ‘skiff, launch (boat)’, and goes back to Latin lancea ‘The Roman auxiliaries' short javelin’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElancea‘The Roman auxiliaries' short javelin’
- Italianc. 1300–presentlanciaas lance‘skiff, launch (boat)’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590launce
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElancea‘The Roman auxiliaries' short javelin’
- Italianc. 1300–presentlanciaas lance‘skiff, launch (boat)’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590launce
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto VII: “Fortune all in equall launce doth sway.”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- ‘to hit’
plant, peel, plague, fling, lancet, plaintive, lancer, 9 more
through Latin lancea ‘The Roman auxiliaries' short javelin’
Today it means
noun A balance.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin lancea / launce