praeliminaris

Forms

praelīmināris (neuter praelīmināre); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + līmināris (“of the threshold”),^[2][3] that is, “before the threshold”, from līmen (“threshold”).^[4][3] Conte and Etymonline call it a Medieval Latin word,^[5][4] Wiktionary a New Latin one.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Polish humanist Latin of the early 16th century it qualifies an introductory page or letter; a letter of 1527 speaks of a praeliminaris epistola.^[2]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline the word arose in the long diplomatic negotiations that ended the Thirty Years' War.^[4] French préliminaire, English preliminary, German präliminär, Italian preliminare, Spanish and Portuguese preliminar all come from it.^[1][5] English has preliminaries from the 1650s and the adjective from the 1660s.^[4]

Timeline

• 1527 – A letter speaks of a praeliminaris epistola.^[2]
• 1650s – English has preliminaries, things that lead up to what follows.^[4]
• 1660s – English has the adjective preliminary, from French and directly from Latin.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Placed at the beginning, introductory.^[2]
2. (New Latin) Preliminary, leading up to the main business.^[1][4]

Related words

• līmen
• English preliminary

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier