Etymologically
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praedatus

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Forms

praedātus m (genitive praedātūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin praedor (“to plunder”) with the suffix -tus.[1][2] De Vaan treats it with praeda (“booty”) under prehendō (“to grasp, seize”); following Livingston he takes praeda from Proto-Italic *prai-χod-ā-, a compound containing the root of that verb.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only citation is in Plautus' Cistellaria, in the dative beside perditui: me meumque filium … habes perditui et praedatui, “you hold me and my son for ruin and plunder”.[1][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The TLL equates it with praedātiō, “plundering”.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Cistellaria.[1][2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Robbery, plundering.[1][2]

Usage notes

A different word is the late participle prae-dătus, “given beforehand”, from prae and dō, used by Caelius Aurelianus in the 5th century.[5][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press