praeduco

Forms

praedūcō (present infinitive praedūcere, perfect active praedūxī, supine praeductum); third conjugation, irregular short imperative^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + dūcō (“to lead, draw”).^[2][3][1] dūcō goes back to Proto-Italic *douk-e- and Proto-Indo-European *deuk-e/o- (“to draw”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Caesar's Gallic War, of a wall of large stones that the Gauls had built in front to slow the Roman attack.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Caesar also uses it of ditches dug across roads,^[5][6] and Tibullus of a ditch drawn in front of a camp.^[5][6] Lucan has it of a flank covered by cavalry led round in front.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of lines drawn with silver, copper or lead, and of lines marked out to plan the route of an aqueduct.^[2][6] Lewis and Short note that Cicero does not use it.^[5] In manuscripts it is often confused with prōdūcō.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a wall and of ditches built in front.^[2][5][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of drawing lines.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To build (a wall, a ditch) along a line in front.^[2][5]
2. To lead across or place in front.^[2]
3. To draw out (a line); to mark out (a route).^[2][6]

Word family

• praeductōrius

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de