praetervehor

Forms

praetervehor (present infinitive praetervehī, perfect active praetervectus sum); third conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin praeter- (“past”) + vehō (“to carry”), mostly used as a deponent, "to be carried past".^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces vehō to Proto-Italic *weχ-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ueǵʰ-e/o- (“to carry”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is Accius, of travellers who have sailed past the shallows of the mysteries on the right.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As a deponent it means to travel past, especially by sea: Cicero speaks of those sailing past, Caesar of sailing past Apollonia, and Statius of passing a place by land.^[2][5] Livy has a man riding past on horseback, and the TLL dates the present participle from that passage.^[5][3] Figuratively it means to pass over without stopping, especially in speech, and to get past someone unnoticed: Cicero speaks of a speech that has not passed by the hearers' ears, and Seneca says he wants to live his life, not be carried past it.^[2] The rare active praetervehō means to carry past, as Seneca's swift course of life.^[2][3] Ovid splits it, praeter erant vectī.^[5][3] Stelten gives "be carried past, sail past" for Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of sailing past.^[2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of sailing past and of a speech heard.^[5][2]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of sailing past Apollonia.^[5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of riding past.^[5][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of life carried past.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be carried past; to sail, ride or drive past.^[2][5][1][6]
2. (figurative) To pass over (in speech); to get past unnoticed.^[2]
3. (active praetervehō) To carry past.^[2]

Related words

• vehō
• circumvehor

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson