prenso

Forms

prēnsō (present infinitive prēnsāre, perfect active prēnsāvī, supine prēnsātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also given as prehēnsō,^[1][2] but the TLL finds that form only in poor manuscript variants.^[3]

Etymology

It is a frequentative, from Latin prehendō (“to grasp”) + -tō.^[4][3] De Vaan traces prehendō to Proto-Italic *χend- (“to seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *gʰ-n(e)-d- (“to grab”), comparing Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to grab”); the contracted ⟨prēnd-⟩ arose in compounds and was then taken as a new simple verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotations in the OLD are in Cicero, who uses it of canvassing for office.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to grasp repeatedly or try to grasp, clutch at: Virgil has a man clutching at shadows in vain, Livy hands grasped as people come out, Tacitus soldiers seizing their comrades.^[4] It is also to accost or buttonhole people to ask for help: Livy says a man would not even change his clothes or go round as a suppliant appealing to people.^[4] Of candidates it is to canvass, as in Livy and Pliny the Younger.^[4] Church Latin glosses it to grasp mentally.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of canvassing.^[4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of clutching at shadows.^[4][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of buttonholing and canvassing.^[4][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of soldiers seizing their comrades.^[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grasp repeatedly or try to grasp, clutch at.^[4][1]
2. To accost, buttonhole (in order to appeal for help); of candidates, to canvass.^[4]

Word family

• prensātiō

Related words

• prehendō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson