praefringo

Forms

praefringō (present infinitive praefringere, perfect active praefrēgī, supine praefrāctum); third conjugation^[1][2] Manuscripts often drop the second ⟨r⟩, especially in Columella.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + frangō (“to break”).^[1][3] De Vaan traces frangō to Proto-Italic *frang- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰr-n-ǵ- (“to break”), a nasal present.^[4] Cognate with Old High German brehhan (“to break”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL record it from Plautus on,^[4][3] whose Miles Gloriosus has pugnō praefrēgistī bracchium, “you broke the arm with your fist”.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

It means to break something at the end or along its length: Cato advises tying young vines often so that the stalks do not break,^[1][5] and Livy has spears broken or blunted.^[1] It is also to break off the tip: Caesar has a ship's beak broken off, Livy one horn of a helmet, and Ovid a pine broken off and hurled at an enemy.^[1][5] Seneca notes that straight things put in water look bent and broken.^[1]

The participle praefrāctus became an adjective: of style, abrupt, as Cicero calls Thucydides; of character, stern and unbending, as he calls Aristo of Chios.^[5] Manuscripts often confuse the verb with perfringō.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of breaking an arm.^[1][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of vine stalks.^[1][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a ship's beak broken off.^[1][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of spears and of a helmet's horn.^[1][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To break at the end or along its length; to break to pieces.^[1][5]
2. To break off at the end, break off short.^[1][2]

Usage notes

The participle praefrāctus is used as an adjective, “abrupt” of style and “stern, inflexible” of character, with the adverb praefrāctē, “obstinately”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de