praedives

Forms

praedīves (genitive praedīvitis); third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + dīves (“rich”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan thinks dīves was probably derived from dīvus (“divine”), meaning “who is like, or protected by, the gods”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Virgil, Ovid and Livy on,^[3] and Virgil speaks in the Aeneid of the city of very rich Latinus: praedīvitis urbe Latīnī.^[3] Servius remarks on that line that the epithet, in the Greek manner, is out of place in a passage about mourning.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means very rich, of people: Livy calls Spurius Maelius very wealthy for those times,^[3] and Tacitus pairs it with praepotēns.^[5][6] Juvenal speaks of the gardens of the very rich Seneca.^[5] Of things it means richly stocked or abundant, as when Ovid's nymph carries autumn in the plentiful horn.^[2][5] Cicero has perdīves instead,^[3] and the word has no comparative or superlative.^[3]

British medieval writers used it of rich people, of Christ, and as a noun for a very rich man, and of places and churches richly endowed.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of King Latinus.^[3][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of wealthy Romans.^[3][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a horn of plenty.^[2][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus pairs it with praepotēns.^[5][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very rich, wealthy.^[2][5]
2. Of things, richly supplied, abundant.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) Of places or churches, richly endowed.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de