petulans

Forms

petulāns (genitive petulantis, comparative petulantior, superlative petulantissimus, adverb petulanter); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is the participle of a lost verb *petulāre, from petō (“to aim at, attack”); the TLL takes that verb from an adjective petulus, perhaps preserved in glosses, and compares petulcus (“butting”).^[2][3][1][4] De Vaan traces petō to Proto-Italic *pet-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *pt-(e)i- (“to fly”), the sense passing from flying to flying at something and trying to get it.^[5] Cognate with Old Irish én (“bird”), Hittite pattaii- (“to run, fly, flee”) and Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[5][6] who in the Bacchides joins it with protervus and iracundus of a reckless temper.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means impudently or boisterously aggressive, self-assertive, forward or insolent, and of behaviour and language unruly, as Cicero speaks of a fiery, insolent and frenzied manner of speaking.^[3] Lewis & Short explain it as assailing in jest, and so pert, saucy or wanton.^[4] Of sexual behaviour it means wanton or immodest, as in Varro's boy who corrupts the whole flock of boys.^[3] In Church Latin it is glossed wanton, lustful, freakish, capricious.^[7]

Döderlein sets it among words for offences against modesty: the petulans sins through wantonness, raillery and needless attack, the protervus through impetuosity, and the lascivus through unrestrained playfulness.^[8] English borrowed petulant through French in the 1590s, at first in the sense immodest or saucy.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a reckless temper.^[3][5][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a wanton boy.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an insolent style of speaking.^[3][6]
• 1590s – Borrowed into English as petulant.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Impudently or boisterously aggressive, forward, insolent, unruly.^[3][4][1]
2. Of behaviour or language, pert, saucy, insolent.^[3][4][1]
3. Of sexual behaviour, wanton, immodest.^[3][7][1]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Freakish, capricious.^[7]

Word family

• petulantia

Related words

• petō
• petulcus
• protervus
• English petulant

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d 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 c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com