Chapter Larry Dugan's Eye-water to Laugh in One's Sleeve of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mahmood Ibn-Sabuktigeen, who conquered that part of India. The granite Lat, facing a Jain temple at Mudubidery, near Mangalore, in India, is fifty-two feet high.

“The granite lat of Mudubidery, in India, is fifty-two feet high.”

Lateran The ancient palace of the Laterani, given by the Emperor Constantine to the popes. Lateran, from lateo, to hide, and rana, a frog. It is said that Nero ... on one occasion vomited a frog covered with blood, which he believed to be his own progeny, and had it hidden in a vault. The palace which was built on the site of this vault was called the “Lateran,” or the palace of the hidden frog. (Buckle: History of Civilisation.)
   The locality in Rome so called contains the Lateran palace, the Piazza, and the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The Basilica is the Pope's cathedral church. The palace (once a residence of the popes) is now a museum.

Lath or Lathe. A division of a county. Sometimes it was an intermediate division between a hundred and a shire, as the lathes of Kent and rapes of Sussex, each of which contained three or four “hundreds” apiece. In Ireland the arrangement was different. The officer over a lath was called a lathreeve. (Anglo-Saxon læth, a canton.)

“If all that tything failed, then all that lath was charged for that tything; and if the lath failed, then all that hundred was demanded for them [i.e. turbulent fellows], and if the hundred, then the shire.- Spenser: Ireland.

Lather A good lather is half a shave. This is the French proverb, “Barbe bien savonné est á moitié faite. ”

Latin The language spoken by the people of Latium, in Italy. The Latins are called aborigines of Italy. Alba Longa was head of the Latin League, and, as Rome was a colony of Alba Longa, it is plain to see how the Roman tongue was Latin.

“The earliest extant specimen of the Latin language is a fragment of the hymn of the Fratres Arvales (3 syl.). a priestly brotherhood, which offered, every 10th of May, a public sacrifice for the fertility of the fields.” Sellar: Roman Poets of the Republic, chap. ii. p. 34.

   Classical Latin. The Latin of the best authors about the time of Augustus, as Livy, Tacitus, and Cicero (prose), Horace, Virgil, and Ovid (poets).
   Late Latin. The period which followed the Augustan age. This period contains the Church Fathers.
   Low Latin. Mediæval Latin, mainly bastard German, French, Italian, Spanish, and so on.
   Middle Latin. Latin from the sixth to the sixteenth century A.D., both inclusive. In this Latin, prepositions frequently supply the cases of nouns.
   New Latin. That which followed the revival of letters in the sixteenth century.

“Latium. The tale is that this word is from lateo, to lie hid, and was so called because Saturn lay hid there, when he was driven out of heaven by the gods.”

   The Latin Church. The Western Church, in contradistinction to the Greek or Eastern Church.
   The Latin cross. Formed thus: †
    The Greek cross has four equal arms, thus: +

Latin Learning, properly so called, terminated with Boethius, but continued to be used in literary compositions and in the services of the church.

Latinus King of the Laurentians, a people of Latium. According to Virgil, Latinus opposed Æneas on his first landing, but subsequently formed an alliance with him, and gave him Lavinia in marriage. Turnus, King of the Rutuli, declared that Lavinia had been betrothed to him, and prepared to support his claim by arms. It was agreed to decide the rival claims by single combat, and Æneas being victor, obtained Lavinia for his wife.
   Latinus (in Jerusalem Delivered), an Italian, went with his five sons to the Holy War. His eldest son was slain by Solyman; Aramantes, going to his brother's aid, was also slain; then Sabinus; and lastly, Picus and Laurente, twins. The father now rushed on the soldan, and was slain also. In one hour the father and his five sons were all slain.

Latitudinarians A sect of divines in the time of Charles II., opposed both to the High Church party and to the Puritans. The term is now applied to those persons who hold very loose views of Divine inspiration and what are called orthodox doctrines.