fortuno

Forms

fortūnō (present infinitive fortūnāre, perfect active fortūnāvī, supine fortūnātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fortūna (“luck, fortune”) + -ō, a verb made from the noun.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus (c. 250–184 BC) has it in the Trinummus: dī fortūnābunt vostra cōnsilia, “the gods will prosper your plans”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is used mainly of the gods, who make an undertaking, a person or a moment fortunate: Cicero writes to a friend that he hopes the gods will bless his inheritance and his office,^[3][4] and Horace speaks of whatever hour a god has made fortunate for someone.^[4][3] Afranius has the archaic perfect subjunctive fortūnāssint.^[2][4] The grammarian Nonius explains it as “to make prosperous and enrich with all good things”, and glossaries render it “to enrich”.^[3][6] It is most frequent as the participle fortūnātus, “fortunate”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: the gods will prosper someone's plans.^[3][5]
• second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius uses the archaic form fortūnāssint.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, in his letters, wishes that the gods may bless a friend's affairs.^[3][4][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, in the Epistles, of an hour a god has made happy.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To make fortunate or successful, to prosper;^[2][6][4] (of the gods) to bless.^[2][6][4]

Word family

• fortūnātim
• īnfortūnātus
• fortūnātus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press