praecautio

Forms

praecautiō f (genitive praecautiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin praecaveō (“to guard against beforehand”) + -tiō.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Caelius Aurelianus, 5th century AD, in a phrase for the precaution of warding off a disease.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that the prefix keeps its temporal force, “guarding in advance”, and records it both in general use and with the genitive of what is guarded against;^[3] Cassiodorus has it in the plural.^[3] It passed into Italian as precauzione,^[5] and English precaution comes from French and directly from this Late Latin word.^[6]

Timeline

• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus writes of a precaution against a disease.^[2][3][4]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it in the plural.^[3][4]
• c. 1600 – English precaution is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A precaution, a guarding against something beforehand.^[1][2][3]

Related words

• cautio
• English precaution

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com