Etymologically
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postridie

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɔsˈtriː.di.eː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [posˈtriː.di.e][1]

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]

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