impransus

Forms

imprānsus (feminine imprānsa, neuter imprānsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelt inprānsus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + prānsus, the negative prefix with the participle of prandeō (“to eat one's morning meal”).^[2][4] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of prandium (“morning or midday meal”), which he explains as “first meal”, from Proto-Italic *prāmo- (“first”) and Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-mo- (“first”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on:^[5] in the Amphitruo a speaker says “that day I went without breakfast”, the sense “not having had one's morning meal”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Plautus also has a soldier who stands by unfed.^[4] Horace uses it twice: in the Satires he invites his hearers to inquire with him before breakfast, and in the Epistles he describes a man too hungry to tell a citizen from an enemy.^[3][4] It kept the plain meaning “fasting”.^[3][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for “without breakfast”.^[4][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in the Satires and Epistles.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not having had one's morning meal, without breakfast;^[2][3] fasting.^[3]

Related words

• prandium

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de