praetextatus

Forms

praetextātus (feminine praetextāta, neuter praetextātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin praetexta (“toga with a purple border”) + -ātus.^[2][1] praetexta is from praetexō (“to weave in front, border”), which is prae- and texō (“to weave”);^[3][4] de Vaan traces texō to Proto-Italic *tekse/o- and Proto-Indo-European *teḱ-s- (“to fashion”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[5] who uses it of magistrates and of boys wearing the bordered toga, as Sextus Clodius, who had never worn it before.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means wearing the toga praetexta, the dress of magistrates and of boys until they came of age;^[2] Livy has a man with four sons in the man's toga and two still praetextātī.^[2] It then means being of that age, a boy, and as a noun a boy under age;^[2][3] Gellius uses aetās praetextāta of the age under seventeen.^[2][3] Juvenal's praetextātus adulter is an adulterer still a boy, and Martial's friendship from boyhood is praetextāta.^[3][2] In Suetonius praetextāta verba are unseemly or obscene words, as Vespasian did not hold back from them.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of magistrates and boys wearing the toga praetexta.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of boys not yet of age.^[2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of obscene words.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius of the age under seventeen.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Wearing the toga praetexta, of magistrates and of boys under age.^[2][3][1]
2. Of an age to wear the toga praetexta, juvenile; as a noun, a boy under age.^[2][3][1]
3. Characteristic of youth; unseemly, obscene.^[2][3]

Usage notes

Praetextātus is also a Roman cognomen, as of the consul Servius Sulpicius Praetextatus.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de