Lustrum

Quick meaning: Lustrum is a noun meaning (by extension, literary) Synonym of quinquennium: Any 5-year period.

Meaning

(by extension, literary) Synonym of quinquennium: Any 5-year period.

More Meanings

1. (historical) A lustration: a ceremonial purification of the people of Rome performed every five years after the census.

Example Sentences

Q. Now, sir, if you would be so kind as to guess upon his age. / A. Forty five years are certain. I would guess a lustrum more.

We puſh Time from us, and we wiſh Him back; / Laviſh of Luſtrums, and yet fond of Life; / Life we think long, and ſhort; Death ſeek, and ſhun; […]

[A]ll theſe Magiſtrates were elected by, and from, the whole promiſcuous Body of the People in their public Aſſemblies; that after the Inſtitution of Cenſors, it was look'd upon as a Matter of Form only, that they should enroll the new Senators at the next general Luſtrum, or Survey of the Commonwealth; […]

I am hardly, if I do not deceive myself, twenty years old, and already, dearest Rosamunda, there weigh upon my existence twenty lustrums, and of these twenty lustrums I have drunk the bitterness of intranquility even to the dregs, without having done more than touched with my lips the joy of the first days of my childhood beside you.

Word Forms

• lustra
• lustrums

Synonyms for lustrum

Depending on context, synonyms include luster, quinquennium.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include lustration, lutation, jubilization, jubilee, postliminy, libation.

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