praeverto

Forms

praevertō (present infinitive praevertere, perfect active praevertī, supine praevertum); third conjugation^[1] Plautus mostly writes praevortō, and he also has a deponent praevertor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + vertō (“to turn”).^[2][4][1] Wiktionary traces vertō to Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).^[1] The TLL notes that the spelling ⟨-vort-⟩ is kept in the old manuscripts of Plautus, and the OLD that it is usual in his text.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Miles gloriosus, of turning a cup towards oneself before others, and in the Casina of forestalling the men.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

From turning something in a direction first it came to mean outrunning or overtaking, as in Catullus' runner who outstrips the hind,^[2] and forestalling or anticipating, often so as to prevent something.^[2][3] Plautus also uses it of a fear that takes hold of the mind first.^[2] With the sense of attending to one matter before others it is common in Livy, of the tribunes letting the war be dealt with first.^[2] Plautus has a deponent praevertor in that sense, which Lewis & Short find only in the present tense.^[2][3] Lewis & Short also give the sense "to prefer", from Plautus' Amphitruo.^[3] Stelten glosses it "go before, anticipate, surpass" in Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of directing something first and of forestalling.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, of outrunning a hind.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of attending to a matter first.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To direct or turn something first (in a given direction).^[2]
2. To outstrip, outrun, overtake.^[2][3]
3. To forestall, anticipate, often so as to prevent; to take hold of the mind first, preoccupy.^[2][3][1]
4. To attend to something first, deal with before other things.^[2][1]
5. (deponent praevertor) To turn one's attention first to, concern oneself chiefly with.^[2][3]
6. To prefer, put before.^[3]

Related words

• vertō
• English prevert

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 o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson