praevehor

Forms

praevehor (present infinitive praevehī, perfect active praevectus sum); third conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + vehō (“to carry, (passive) to ride, sail”).^[2][1][3][4] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *weχ-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ueǵh-e/o- (“to carry”), and compares Umbrian ařveitu (“let him add”), Sanskrit वहति (váhati, “carries, conveys”), Ancient Greek ὄχος (ókhos, “cart”) and Lithuanian vèžti (“to convey”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds the perfect participle from Virgil and Livy on;^[4] Virgil has praevectus equo nuntius, a messenger riding ahead.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It means to travel, ride or sail past or along.^[2] Lewis and Short note that Cicero and Caesar do not use it.^[6] On horseback it is to ride ahead or ride past: Livy has Roman horsemen who had ridden ahead, and a man riding past eleven fasces.^[2][6][7] By ship it is to sail past or along, as in Propertius, who has the Ceraunian headland passed with a lucky oar, and in Tacitus, of the coast of Achaia.^[2][8] Silius Italicus uses it poetically of outstripping the winds on foot, and Tacitus of the Rhine, which flows past Germany.^[2][6]

Pliny the Younger uses it figuratively of style that flows forth with a certain force,^[6][7] although the TLL doubts that reading.^[4] Forms other than the perfect participle are rare and found from Lucan and Silius on.^[4]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil has praevectus equo.^[2][4][9]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of riders going ahead.^[2][6][9]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of sailing past a headland.^[2][8][9]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it of outstripping the winds.^[2][9]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of ships and of the Rhine.^[2][6][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ride ahead or past (on horseback).^[2][6][7]
2. To sail past or along;^[2][8] (with accusative) to sail past (a place).^[2][8]
3. (poetic) To outstrip (on foot).^[2]
4. (of things) To flow or fly past.^[2][6]
5. (figurative, of style) To flow forth.^[6][7]

Related words

• vehō

Usage notes

In Tacitus' dum missilia hostium praevehuntur Lewis and Short take the missiles as the subject, “fly before them”,^[6] but the OLD, Gaffiot and Conte read the horsemen as riding past the enemy's missiles.^[2][7][8] The TLL notes that manuscripts often confuse it with compounds in pro-.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e 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