praesaepe

Forms

praesaepe n (genitive praesaepis); third declension^[1] Also spelled praesēpe, the spelling of inscriptions and most older manuscripts, as of Virgil.^[2][3][1] Feminine praes(a)epēs and neuter praes(a)epium also occur.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + saepēs (“hedge, fence”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it figuratively of someone's own home: a man knows that, if he gets his way, the one he loves will be within his own stalls.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a stall or enclosure for cattle or horses, especially where they are fed;^[2][1] Wiktionary gives enclosure, pen, fold.^[2][1] From Plautus on it is used figuratively of a person's own home or ground, and Cicero uses the plural of brothels, saying someone is heard of in brothels, in debauchery, at food and wine.^[2] An inscription apparently uses it of a balustrade.^[2] Church Latin glosses it manger, stall, crib.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of one's own stalls.^[2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of brothels.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stall for cattle or horses; an enclosure, pen, fold; a manger, crib.^[2][1][4]
2. (figurative) One's own home or ground.^[2]
3. A brothel.^[2]
4. Apparently, a balustrade.^[2]

Related words

• saepēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson