lustrum

[luhs-truhm] Origin

lus·trum

[luhs-truhm]
noun, plural lus·trums, lus·tra [-truh] .
1.
Also, luster; especially British, lustre. a period of five years.
2.
Roman History. a lustration or ceremonial purification of the people, performed every five years, after the taking of the census.

Origin:
1580–90; < Latin lūstrum; compare luster1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To lustrum

00:10

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

Lustrum is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
lustrum or lustre (ˈlʌstrəm)
 
n , pl -trums, -tra
a period of five years
 
[C16: from Latin: ceremony of purification, from lustrāre to brighten, purify]
 
lustre or lustre (ˈlʌstrəm, -trə)
 
n
 
[C16: from Latin: ceremony of purification, from lustrāre to brighten, purify]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

lustrum
pl. lustra, 1580s, from L. lustrum, perhaps from root of luere "to wash," related to lavere (see lave).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT