Etymologically
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praesaepe

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [prae̯ˈsae̯.pɛ][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [preˈs̬ɛː.pe][1]

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]

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