Etymologically
Log in

praepotens

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈprae̯.pɔ.tẽːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈprɛː.po.tens][1]

Forms

praepotēns (genitive praepotentis); third-declension one-termination adjective[1] The genitive plural is praepotentium from Cicero on, and praepotentum in Seneca.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + potēns (“powerful”).[4][2][1] Lewis & Short take it as the participle of praepossum (“to be more powerful”).[3] De Vaan derives potēns from Proto-Italic *pot-ē- (“to be master”), made from Proto-Indo-European *pót-i- (“master, lord”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero.[6] The TLL finds it once each in the poetry of Plautus and Accius, and in prose from Cicero on.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means outstandingly powerful, superior to others in power:[4] Cicero writes of famous and very powerful men, of Jupiter all-powerful over all things, and of Carthage powerful on land and sea.[3] He also uses it of abstract things, of powerful and glorious philosophy.[4][3] As a plural noun, praepotentēs are the powerful, as in Cicero, Columella and Pliny the Elder.[3] Pliny also has praepotentēs opibus, "very rich", and Valerius Maximus a most powerful impulse of gratitude.[3][4] Prudentius uses it four times.[2] Stelten glosses it "mighty".[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, in a doubtful passage.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of powerful men and of Carthage.[3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy.[2]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of the powerful.[3]
  • 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Very powerful, superior in power, mighty.[4][3][1][7]

Noun

  1. (plural) The powerful.[3]

Word family

  • praepotentia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson