Etymologically
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fortuno

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [fɔrˈtuː.noː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [forˈtuː.no][1]

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

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