Etymologically
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praestantia

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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]

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