Etymologically
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prenso

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈprẽː.soː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈprɛn.so][1]

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

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