Etymologically
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exprobro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɛk.sprɔ.broː], [ɛkˈsprɔb.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛk.spro.bro], [ekˈsprɔb.ro][1]

Forms

exprobrō (present infinitive exprobrāre, perfect active exprobrāvī, supine exprobrātum); first conjugation[1] Manuscripts very often spell it exprobāre.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- and probrum (“disgrace, reproach”) with the verb suffix -ō.[3][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “it was never my father's way to reproach good men with the good they did”, in the prologue of the Amphitruo.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is to bring something up as a reproach against someone, to cast it in their teeth, as Cicero's tiresome kind of people who remind others of their favours, and Livy's soldiers who each brought up their service.[3][4] With a clause it is to reproach someone that something is so, as Plautus' “do you keep throwing it at me that I am a slave?”, and it is also used absolutely.[4] Quintilian notes that the same words, said differently, can state, affirm or reproach.[4]

The grammarian Caper distinguishes ⟨exprobrat⟩, said of one who recalls the favours he has done, from ⟨obprobrat⟩, said of one who casts a disgrace in someone's face.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of reproaching good deeds.[4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of people who bring up their favours.[4][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of soldiers recalling their service.[4][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of tone of voice.[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bring up as a reproach (against someone), cast in someone's teeth.[3][4]
  2. To upbraid, reproach.[4][1]

Word family

  • exprobrābilis
  • exprōbrātiō
  • exprobrātor
  • exprobrātrix

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes obicere, to charge someone with something they must clear themselves of, from exprobrāre, to upbraid someone with something that cannot be undone: the one calls to account, the other only puts to shame.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper