Sunday Word: Lacuna

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lacuna [luh-kyoo-nuh]

noun:
1 a gap or missing part, as in a manuscript, series, or logical argument; hiatus.
2 (Anatomy) one of the numerous minute cavities in the substance of bone, supposed to contain nucleate cells.
3 (Botany) an air space in the cellular tissue of plants.

Examples:

Following a doctrine of necessity invoked by the National Assembly to rescue Nigeria from impending constitutional crisis thrown up by a lacuna in the nation’s legal framework, the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan had to complete the remaining tenure of his principal under the invocation of the doctrine of necessity by the then David Mark-led Senate. (Umar, How Jonathan’s Candidacy Will Strengthen North-South Alliance, This Day, February 2022)

It was already known that these early vertebrates had bone cells, but we knew little about how the cells were connected to each other, as well as anything about the detailed structure of the lacuna, or cavities, in which the bone cells were located in the living animal. (Fossils provide new insights into the evolution of bones, Advanced Science News, April 2021)

Whereas with a cultured man there is no gap or lacuna between his opinions and his life. Both are dominated by the same organic, inevitable fatality. (John Cowper Powys, The Meaning of Culture)

Origin:

'blank or missing portion in a manuscript,' 1660s, from Latin lacuna 'hole, pit,' figuratively 'a gap, void, want,' diminutive of lacus 'pond, lake; hollow, opening'. The Latin plural is lacunae. The word has also been used in English from c 1700 in the literal Latin sense in anatomy, zoology, botany. The adjectival forms have somewhat sorted themselves: Mathematics tends to use lacunary (1857), natural history lacunose (1816), and lacunar is used in architecture of paneled ceilings (1690s), so called for their sunken compartments. Leaving lacunal (1846) for the manuscript sense. (Online Etymology Dictionary).

Exploring the etymology of lacuna involves taking a plunge into the pit - or maybe a leap into the lacus (that's the Latin word for 'lake'). Latin speakers modified lacus into lacuna and used it to mean 'pit,' 'cleft,' or 'pool.' English speakers borrowed the term in the 17th century. It is usually pluralized as lacunae; however, lacunas is an accepted variant plural. Another English word that traces its origin to lacuna is lagoon, which came to us by way of Italian and French. (Merriam-Webster)