ludius

From lūdus (“stage-play, show, performance”) +‎ -ius, from the same root as lūdō (“to play”). Compare lūdiō.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈluː.di.us/, [ˈɫ̪uːd̪iʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈlu.di.us/, [ˈluːd̪ius]

lūdius m (genitive lūdiī or lūdī, feminine lūdia); second declension

1. performer (on stage)
2. gladiator (performer in the games)

Second-declension noun.

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• lūdiō

• lūdia

• “ludius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ludius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ludius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “ludius”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray