postridie

Forms

postrīdiē (not comparable)^[1] Plautus also has an older postrīduō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It grew together from the locative ⟨*postrī⟩ of posterus (“following”) and ⟨diē⟩, locative of diēs (“day”), like cottīdiē and merīdiē.^[4][3][1] De Vaan lists it under ⟨diēs⟩, which he takes from the accusative Proto-Indo-European *di(i̯)eu-m (“god of the sky, sky”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[5][6] who also has the form postrīduō.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means “on the following day”, often with a named day or event: with the accusative, as in calendars and in Varro, who says the days after the Kalends, Nones and Ides were called black days; with the genitive, as Cicero's “the day after that day”; or with quam, “the day after”, from Cato on.^[4]

Church Latin has it for “on the next day”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, also as postrīduō.^[2][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato with the genitive and with quam.^[4][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro with the accusative of a named day.^[4][6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. On the following day, the next day.^[4][2][1][7]
2. On the day after a named day or event, with the accusative, the genitive or quam.^[4][1]

Related words

• prīdiē
• posterus
• diēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson