Etymologically
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praegravis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈprae̯.ɡra.wɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈprɛː.ɡra.vis][1]

Forms

praegravis (neuter praegrave); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from prae- (“before; very”) and gravis (“heavy”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces gravis to Proto-Italic *gwra(w)u- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂-u- (“heavy”), with cognates such as Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús, “heavy”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it from Ovid and Livy on;[3] Ovid's Heroides speak of a very heavy burden.[5]

Semantic evolution

It means exceptionally heavy: Livy has a man over sixty and very heavy in body, Pliny the Elder a heavy head, Martial a heavy wave,[5][2] and Tacitus soldiers heavy with food and wine.[5] Pliny the Elder has a partridge pretending to be heavy or lame.[5] Curtius Rufus uses it of a column weighed down with baggage.[2] Figuratively it is burdensome: in Curtius an empire too heavy is dangerous, since what cannot be grasped is hard to hold,[2] and Pliny the Younger speaks of refusing a third consulship as too burdensome.[5] Of persons Tacitus uses it of men very troublesome to the emperor, as one who had been a burden to Nero.[2][5] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.[5] The TLL notes it has no comparative or superlative and is often confused with pergravis in manuscripts.[3]

Timeline

  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a heavy burden.[5][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a man heavy in body.[2][5]
  • 1st century AD – Curtius Rufus of a burdensome empire.[2]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of men troublesome to the emperor.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Exceptionally heavy; weighed down;[2][5][1] (of the body) heavy, clumsy.[2][5][1]
  2. (figurative) Very heavy to bear, burdensome, oppressive;[2][5][1] (of persons) very troublesome.[2][5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de