praenuntio

Forms

praenūntiō (present infinitive praenūntiāre, perfect active praenūntiāvī, supine praenūntiātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + nūntiō (“to announce”).^[2][3][4] The verb is formed from nūntius (“messenger; message”), whose further origin is unclear according to de Vaan: it has been derived from a root unattested in Latin, Proto-Indo-European *neuH- (“to cry”), and also from novus (“new”); the latter fails morphologically.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's De divinatione (1.12), of foretelling future things.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Besides people announcing in advance, as in the Bellum Africum (92.2) of announcing one's arrival,^[9][10] it was used of signs: Seneca writes that smoke heralds a fire (Epistulae 103.2).^[10] Pliny the Elder has a walnut that announces by its noise that it is about to split, sweating dishes that foretell storms, and a tower whose use was to give warning of shallows.^[6][7]

In Christian Latin Tertullian uses it of things foretold,^[10] Augustine has a passive venturus ipse praenuntiabatur, “he himself was foretold as coming”,^[9] and it served for foretelling and prophecy in ecclesiastical texts.^[11] The TLL notes that medieval manuscripts often spell it praenunc-.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of foretelling future things.^[6][8]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it of an arrival announced in advance.^[9][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca says smoke announces a fire.^[10][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of signs in nature.^[6][8]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of things foretold.^[10][8]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the passive of one foretold as coming.^[9][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To announce in advance, give notice of beforehand.^[2][6]
2. To foretell, predict.^[6][7]
3. Of things: to give the first sign of, herald, signal.^[2][6]

Word family

• praenuntiatio
• praenuntiativus
• praenuntiator
• praenuntiatrix

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
11. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson