porrectus

Forms

porrēctus (feminine porrēcta, neuter porrēctum, comparative porrēctior); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin porrigō¹ (“to stretch out”).^[1][3] That verb is a compound of por- (“forth”) and regō (“to direct, stretch”),^[1][4] which de Vaan derives from Proto-Italic *reg-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h3reǵ-e/o- (“to stretch, direct”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example in the OLD is in Plautus (c. 250–184 BC), with the comparative: a speaker wants to be talked to with a smoother, unruffled brow (porrectiore fronte).^[1][2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose and poetry it means stretched out, extended: Columella has oxen with long flanks and horns long and high, Pliny the Elder fish swimming in a long line, Tacitus a battle line that would be too extended, Horace a place not spread out over plains, and Ovid a long-drawn-out delay.^[1][3] Seneca contrasts the round stars with the elongated comets,^[1] and the land surveyors use pes porrectus for a linear foot as against a square one.^[1][2] The neuter porrēctum became a noun for length or extent (Pliny) and a straight line (Vitruvius); in porrēctum is “in a straight line” in Apicius and in the jurist Gaius.^[2] Later Ammianus uses it of a long plain.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the comparative of an unruffled brow.^[1][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of land spread out over plains.^[3][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the long flanks and horns of oxen.^[1][6]
• 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca calls comets elongated.^[1][6]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it of a long plain.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Stretched out, extended, long.^[1][2]
2. Elongated.^[1]
3. (of measures) Linear.^[1][2]
4. (of the brow) Smoothed out, unruffled.^[1][2]

Noun

1. (neuter, porrēctum) Length, extent; a straight line.^[2]

Usage notes

Georges and Conte also record a porrectus that is the participle of porriciō, Conte with a query.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de