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Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
> Dan Clore <clore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>> As always, more information welcomed. This seems to be a Jack Vance
>> coinage, but it's possible that he took the word from somewhere
>> else.
>>
>> Other likely suspects for use include Michael Shea (one of whose
>> books is set in Vance's Dying Earth, but I have yet to see a copy),
>> and Gary Gygax, who used the term in Dungeons and Dragons (but not,
>> so far as I know, in his own fiction).
>>
>> libram, n. [?< L liber, book; the derivation seems obvious, but the
>> form is inexplicable. Apparently coined by Jack Vance.] A book; in
>> particular, one pertaining to magick. [Not in OED.]
>
> I don't see a connection, but the only early hits I find in English
> are for the phrase "per aes et libram", which is translated as "with
> bronze (ingots) and scales", apparently referring to a ritual used
> to transfer real property (and bind oneself into servitude).
Outside of gaming or SF sites, AOL for other languages; it can also
mean "a pound" as a grammatical object in Latin. It's no better for
other possible forms: "libramus" always seems to mean "we weigh out";
"libramum" and "libramis" get no hits; "librama" does occur in what
look like Polish and Hungarian texts, but I can't get dictionary sites
to admit the word means anything in those languages. Maybe it's an
inflected form.
For obvious reasons, I didn't mess with "librame" or "libras".
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