praestituo

Forms

praestituō (present infinitive praestituere, perfect active praestituī, supine praestitūtum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + statuō (“to set up, fix”).^[2][3][4] De Vaan lists it among the compounds of statuō, which he places with status (“standing”) in the family of stō (“to stand”); the noun goes back to Proto-Italic *statu- (“setting up”) and Proto-Indo-European *sth₂tu- (“placement”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan first finds it in Plautus,^[5] where in the Pseudolus a day has been fixed for some business (eī reī diēs haec praestitūta est).^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

It means to fix in advance a day, a time or a limit: in Terence a day had been set for paying money, Cicero speaks of hours fixed at will and of nature lending life with no day fixed for its return, and Livy of soldiers enlisted with no fixed term of service.^[6][3][4] Cicero also uses it with an indirect question, of a praetor who never laid down which action a plaintiff was to use.^[6][7] The TLL finds it in poetry only three times in Plautus' Pseudolus and once each in Terence and Terentianus Maurus; otherwise it is a prose word, used by Cicero (above all in the speeches), the law of Urso and Livy, and most of all in the language of the law.^[2] Ulpian uses it of putting people in charge of a work,^[6] and later writers keep the sense of prescribing, as when Tertullian speaks of laying down a rule and Ammianus of a day fixed for payment.^[3] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for to prescribe or appoint beforehand.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a day fixed for some business.^[6][9]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a day set for payment.^[6][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of fixed hours and times.^[6][9]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of a fixed term of military service.^[6][9]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of putting people in charge.^[6][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fix in advance (a day, a time, a limit); to prescribe.^[6][10][8]
2. To lay down (other conditions) beforehand.^[6]
3. (law) To put in charge (of a work).^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press