praestantia

Forms

praestantia f (genitive praestantiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin praestāns (“outstanding”) + -ia.^[2][1][3] praestāns is the present participle of praestō² (“to excel”), a compound of prae (“before”) and stō (“to stand”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *sth₂-eh₁-ie/o- (“to stand”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Köbler find it first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium,^[3][5] where an exaggeration is drawn either from likeness or from superiority.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is outstanding excellence or pre-eminence, used in the singular only.^[2][3] Cicero speaks of the excellence given to the virtues of the mind, of man's superiority over the other creatures, of pre-eminence in virtue, talent and fortune, and of gods excelling in all things.^[2][6] After him the TLL records it in Valerius Maximus, Pliny the Elder and Frontinus.^[3] From the middle of the 2nd century AD the TLL also finds a separate use from praestō² in the sense “to provide”: the act of providing.^[3] In medieval Latin it can mean help or aid.^[7] Church Latin keeps “excellence, superiority”.^[8]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium, of superiority as a ground of exaggeration.^[2][3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the pre-eminence of virtue.^[2][6][5]
• mid-2nd century AD – The sense “a providing”.^[3]
• Medieval Latin – Help, aid.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Outstanding excellence, pre-eminence.^[2][6][1][8]
2. Superiority over others.^[2][6]
3. (Late Latin) A providing;^[3] (Medieval Latin) help, aid.^[7]

Related words

• praestāns
• praestō²
• excellentia
• stō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson