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postpono

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word postpono

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 50 BC, Caesar
Ultimate origin
Proto-Italic (*po-sine/o-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sino
Latin situs
Latin pono
Latin positivus
English positive
Latin praepono
Latin postpono
Latin positura
Latin repono
Latin repositorium
Latin sepono
Latin circumpono

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɔs(t)ˈpoː.noː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [postˈpɔː.no][1]

Forms

postpōnō (present infinitive postpōnere, perfect active postposuī or postposīvī, supine postpositum or postpostum); third conjugation[1] Besides postposuī Wiktionary gives the perfect postposīvī.[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin post- + pōnō (“to put, place”).[2][1][3] De Vaan explains pōnō from ⟨*po-sinō⟩ “to put down”, Proto-Italic *po-sine/o-, a compound of sinō.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Caesar and Cicero's son on.[3] Caesar has a journey given up and everything else set aside,[2][5] and Cicero's son writes that he put everything after obeying his father's advice.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to put after, to rank as less important: Horace has putting honest duty after a harlot, and Justin ranking Hannibal below Alexander the Great.[5] It is also to put off or set aside.[2][5] Lewis & Short note that it is classical but not in Cicero himself.[5] Church Latin has “place or put after or later”.[6] English postpone, “put off to a later time”, is from it, about 1500.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 50 BC – Caesar, of setting everything aside.[2][8]
  • 1st century BC – Cicero's son, in a letter.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, of putting duty after pleasure.[5][8]
  • c. 1500 – English postpone.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To put after, treat as of less importance, neglect.[2][5][1]
  2. To set aside; to postpone, defer.[2][5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Postpono.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/postpono. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·