Apicius documents it as a spicy, smoked beef or pork sausage originally from Lucania; according to Cicero and Martial, it was brought by Roman troops or slaves from Lucania.
It has given its name to a variety of sausages (fresh, cured, and smoked) in Mediterranean cuisine and its colonial offshoots, including:
Italian luganega or lucanica
Portuguese and Brazilian linguiça
Bulgarian lukanka or loukanka
Macedonian (Western dialects) lukanec/луканец or lukanci/луканци
Greek loukaniko, a fresh sausage usually flavored with orange peel
Spanish, Latin American, and Philippine longaniza, a name which covers both fresh and cured sausages
Arabic laqāniq, naqāniq, or maqāniq, made of mutton and some semolina
