Etymologically
Log in

prelum

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpreː.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈprɛː.lum][1]

Forms

prēlum n (genitive prēlī); second declension[1] It is also spelled praelum.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from premō (“to press”).[2][3][4] De Vaan derives it from ⟨*preslo-⟩ and takes ⟨*pres-⟩ as the original stem of the verb, from Proto-Italic *pres- and Proto-Indo-European *pr-es- (“to press”);[5] Leumann's ⟨*premslo-⟩ he finds unlikely.[5] The TLL, on the contrary, prefers a form with ⟨-m-⟩ to ⟨*pres-lo-⟩.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD find it first in Cato,[5][2] who in De agri cultura lists five fitted presses and gives the length of a press-beam.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is first the beam of a wine or oil press, and so the press itself: Cato uses it in his instructions on the press-room,[2][3] and Servius explains Virgil's word as the beams with which trodden grapes are pressed.[3] Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder use it too.[3] Martial has a press for clothes, in which cloaks are laid,[2] and Pliny the Elder the press for papyrus sheets.[2] Stelten gives "press, winepress", and in modern Church Latin also the printing press and the news media.[6]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of presses and press-beams.[2][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the wine-press.[3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of the papyrus press.[2]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial of a clothes press.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A winepress or oil press, or its beam.[2][3][1]
  2. A press for clothes.[2][3][1]
  3. A press for making sheets of papyrus.[2]
  4. (New Latin) A printing press; the press, news media.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 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. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de