Lexicon:Lucus a non lucendo

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Notes:

More or less impossible to translate, but meaning 'a contradiction in terms, often with facetious intent'; often attributed to Quintilian, who quotes the phrase as already well-known. The word lucus, 'a grove' — i.e., that part of a wood where dappled sunlight breaks dimly through — is derived from the verb lucere, 'to light', from which lucendo is also derived. The force of the phrase is "it is called 'a bright place', though usually pretty dark", or in the O'Brian, "it is called a rose garden though it usually has no roses.".

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