lacuna

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a gap, omission, or missing part in a text, argument, record, or body of knowledge

   The absence of any account of the experiment leaves a serious lacuna in the report.

2. 2
   noun

   a small cavity, pit, or empty space in an anatomical structure, especially bone

   Each osteocyte occupies a tiny lacuna in the bone matrix.

Simplified etymology

Lacuna comes from Latin lacuna, a diminutive related to lacus, “basin, pool, lake.” Because lacuna could also mean a hole or pit, English has used it since the mid-17th century for a gap or missing portion.

A learned borrowing from Latin lacuna ("pit, hollow, gap, defect"). The same Latin family also produced lacune and, through Italian, lagoon; the abstract sense treats missing information as an empty space.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary