praetexo

Forms

praetexō (present infinitive praetexere, perfect active praetexuī, supine praetextum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + texō (“to weave”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces texō to Proto-Italic *tekse/o- and Proto-Indo-European *teḱ-s- (“to fashion”), with cognates such as Sanskrit तक्षति (tákṣati, “to hammer, fashion”) and Hittite takš- (“to devise, undertake”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it in prose from Cicero.^[3] Cicero describes an acrostic poem in which the whole is edged with the first letters of each sentence.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is to weave in front, to edge or border: Ovid has gleaming purple bordering a cloak.^[6] It is also to set in front or extend in front as a screen, as a marjoram plant casting its shade in Columella, and to preface: Cicero says that nature has put gentler beginnings before everything done with great force.^[2] It is to clothe and, figuratively, to cloak: in the Aeneid a woman cloaks her fault with the name of marriage.^[2] From this it came to mean to put forward as a pretext: Cicero says that no one can want an army without pretending a desire for a triumph.^[2] In verse the manuscripts often confuse it with praetegō and other compounds.^[3] English pretext comes, through French, from its noun ⟨praetextum⟩, from the 1510s.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an acrostic, of a preface, and of a pretext.^[2][3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of cloaking a fault.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a purple border.^[6][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella of a plant casting shade.^[2][5]
• 1510s – English pretext, from its participle, through French.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To border, fringe, edge with something.^[2][6][1]
2. To set in front; to extend in front as a screen; to preface.^[2][1]
3. To clothe, screen; figuratively, to cloak, disguise.^[2][6][1]
4. To put forward as a pretext, pretend.^[2][1]

Word family

• praetextum
• praetextus
• praetexta

Related words

• texō
• English pretext

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d 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 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com