praemineo

Forms

praemineō (present infinitive praeminēre); second conjugation^[1][2] Lewis & Short and Georges enter it under the spelling praeēmineō.^[3][4] The TLL finds praem- far more common and confirmed by metre, with praeem- in some manuscripts and older editions.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + -mineō, with the same root as ēmineō (“to stand out”) and immineō (“to overhang”).^[1][2] De Vaan traces that root to Proto-Italic *men-ē- (“to stick out”) and Proto-Indo-European *m(e)n-eh₁-, a root he also sees in mōns (“mountain”) and mentum (“chin”); minae (“threats”) first meant “protruding parts”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Sallust's Histories, of something that stands out to a height of two miles.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It means to stand out or project: Apuleius has a girl of whom only the face stands out.^[1] More often it means to surpass: the elder Seneca says that one passage surpasses the Greeks,^[1][3] and Tacitus that Cassius surpassed the rest in knowledge of the law.^[1][3] It takes the accusative, and in Ausonius the dative.^[4] Glosses explain it as excellit and praecellit.^[2]

Augustine uses the spelling praeēmineō in the literal sense,^[4] and Claudianus Mamertus has the comparative participle praeēminentior.^[4]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of high ground that stands out.^[1][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it with the accusative in the sense “to surpass”.^[1][6]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a face standing out.^[1][6]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses it with the dative.^[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stand out, be prominent, project.^[1][3]
2. To surpass, excel, be superior to.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de