praeopto

Forms

praeoptō (present infinitive praeoptāre, perfect active praeoptāvī, supine praeoptātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled ⟨prēoptō⟩.^[1] In Plautus, Terence and Catullus the first two syllables are sometimes run together into one.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + optō (“to choose, wish”).^[3][2][1] De Vaan traces optō to Proto-Italic *opeje- (“to choose, grab”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁op-eie-, following Vine, who explains it as a frequentative made on a participle of an older iterative; he compares Umbrian upetu (“let him select”) and Hittite epp- (“to take, grab”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in verse in Plautus, Terence and Catullus, and in prose from Caesar, Nepos and Livy on;^[2] in Plautus' Trinummus a young man is told he preferred to put his love before virtue.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to choose one thing rather than another, to prefer.^[3][6] The thing rejected is put in the dative, with quam or with pro:^[3][5] Catullus has Ariadne preferring the sweet love of Theseus to all her family, Nepos a man preferring a knight's daughter to marriages with noblewomen, and Livy peoples who preferred their own laws to Roman citizenship.^[3][6][5] With an infinitive it means to prefer to do something: Caesar's Helvetii prefer to throw away their shields, Tacitus writes of Roman legions that preferred to die, and Curtius of a man who preferred to be wronged undeservedly than with justice.^[3][6] Terence uses it with an accusative and infinitive.^[3]

The TLL notes that Christian writers such as Ambrose and Paulinus of Nola join it with synonyms such as praeferre and malle.^[2] Paulus' epitome of Festus glosses an obscure praedotiont as praeoptant, but de Vaan finds that word too uncertain to use.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of preferring love to virtue.^[3][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it with an accusative and infinitive.^[3][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of Ariadne's preference for Theseus.^[3][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it with an infinitive.^[3][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it often with quam.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To choose in preference, prefer (with the thing rejected in the dative, or with quam or pro).^[3][6]
2. (with infinitive or accusative and infinitive) To prefer to do; to prefer that.^[3][5]

Related words

• optō
• praeferō
• mālō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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 f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de