prandeo

Forms

prandeō (present infinitive prandēre, perfect active prandī, supine prānsum); second conjugation^[1] Diomedes gives a perfect prandidī, and Late Latin has forms of the third conjugation.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from prandium (“late breakfast, lunch”) with the suffix -eō.^[4][1] De Vaan explains prandium from ⟨*prāmo-ed-io-⟩ “first meal”, with Proto-Italic *prāmo- (“first”) from Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-mo- (“first”), comparing Lithuanian pìrmas (“first”) and Old English forma (“first”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] in whose Poenulus someone is asked whether he had a hot lunch that day.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is to take one's morning or midday meal, to lunch: Ennius has someone bidding men to eat, and Catullus, having lunched, lies full on his back.^[4] Of troops it is to eat before going into action, as in Livy, and the participle ⟨prānsus⟩ has an active sense, “having eaten”.^[4] With an object it is to lunch on something.^[4] Wiktionary adds to eat in general.^[1] Church Latin glosses it to eat.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a hot lunch.^[4][5][7]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius.^[4][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, having lunched.^[4][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of soldiers eating before battle.^[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take one's morning or midday meal, breakfast, lunch; to eat.^[4][2][1][6]
2. Of troops, to eat before going into action.^[4]
3. To lunch on, eat (something).^[4][1]

Word family

• imprānsus
• prānsitō
• prānsor
• prānsōrius
• pransus

Related words

• prandiolum
• prandium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de