Etymologically
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cras

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkraːs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkras][1]

Forms

crās (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *krās, of uncertain origin.[2][3] No PIE word for “tomorrow” can be reconstructed, but de Vaan suggests it may be an old genitive *ḱreh₂-(e)s of Proto-Indo-European *ḱer-h₂- (“head”), “at the front”, hence “tomorrow”.[2][1] The comparison with Avestan words for “early morning”, made by Walde–Hofmann, does not work formally.[2] Cognate with Faliscan cra (“tomorrow”).[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it.[2][5] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was tomorrow, as Cicero's crās māne “tomorrow morning”, also as a noun.[3][5] In poetry it was the future, as in Horace's “avoid asking what tomorrow will bring”.[3]

Its derivative crāstinus “of tomorrow” is in prōcrāstināre “to put off till tomorrow”, the source of English procrastinate.[7] It survives in archaic Italian crai.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the future.[3][6]
  • 1580s – English procrastinate is recorded.[7]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Tomorrow, (as a noun) the morrow.[3][5]
  2. (poetic) In the future.[3]

Word family

  • crāstinus

Usage notes

Isidore defines it simply as “what comes after”.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).