praestigiae

Forms

praestīgiae f pl (genitive praestīgiārum); first declension^[1][2] The OLD heads it as praestīgia, a singular found mainly in Quintilian, and gives the spelling praestrīgiae.^[3][4] Late writers also have a neuter praestigium, praestigia.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin praestringō (“to blind, dazzle”).^[3][4] The TLL explains the stem ⟨-strīg-⟩ as an ablaut variant of ⟨-strig-⟩ in the verb, with the sense of “illusion, deception”; as the link with the verb faded, the second /r/ was lost by dissimilation, so that ⟨praestīgiae⟩ replaced ⟨praestrīgiae⟩.^[4] The ending is the ⟨-ia⟩ or ⟨-iae⟩ of abstract nouns such as dēsidia and exsequiae.^[4] Lewis & Short derive it instead from praestinguō.^[1] The verb is a compound of stringō (“to bind fast; to strip off”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *string- (“to strip off”).^[5]

Isidore of Seville explains the singular praestigium as named because it dazzles the eyes' sight.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus: patent praestīgiae, “the tricks are out in the open”.^[3][4][7]

Semantic evolution

From tricks meant to hoodwink, the word was used of jugglery and deceit of every kind: Cicero speaks of praestīgiae verbōrum, a deceptive use of words.^[1][7] Caecilius Statius plays on it with the verb: praestrīgiās praestrīnxit.^[3][4] Later authors apply it to natural phenomena, as Gellius to the marvels Pliny wrote about, and Apuleius to the illusions of clouds.^[3][7] Isidore of Seville writes of the praestīgiae of the magicians who opposed Moses.^[6] It passed into Italian prestigio.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of tricks that have been exposed.^[3][4][9]
• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius Statius uses the spelling praestrīgiae.^[3][4][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of praestīgiae verbōrum.^[1][7][9]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses the singular praestīgia.^[3][4][9]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of the marvels described by Pliny.^[3][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural) Tricks meant to deceive, deceit, sleight of hand, jugglery.^[3][1][2]
2. (of natural phenomena) Illusions, marvels.^[3][7]

Word family

• praestīgiātor
• praestīgiōsus

Related words

• praestigium
• praestringō
• stringō
• English prestige

References

1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b Simpson, D. P. (1959), Cassell's New Latin Dictionary, London: Cassell
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de