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pridie

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word pridie

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*pr(e)i,*di-eu-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpriː.di.eː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpriː.di.e][1]

Forms

prīdiē (not comparable)[1] Cicero abbreviates it pr. and prid.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from an old adverb ⟨*prī⟩ “before” and diēs (“day”);[2][3][1] the TLL compares German Vortag (“day before”) and notes that the opposite postrīdiē (“the day after”) contains the locative ⟨posterī⟩.[4] De Vaan derives the adverb behind prior (“former”) from Proto-Indo-European *pr(e)i (“before”), attested by Paulus' abridgement of Festus as ⟨pri⟩ “before”, cognate with Ancient Greek πρίν (prín, “before”), and ⟨diēs⟩ from Proto-Italic *diē- and Proto-Indo-European *di-eu- (“clear sky”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “if he had been born the day before the other” in the Miles gloriosus;[2] Köbler also gives Plautus.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is on the day before, opposite to postrīdiē, and with quam the day before something happened, or more loosely in the time before.[2][3] With an accusative it is used above all in dates, as Cicero's “Philotimus came to Rhodes the day before that day” and Velleius' “the day before his birthday”, and with a genitive, as Cicero's and Caesar's prīdiē eius diēī.[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “yesterday, on the day before”.[7] In Medieval Latin prīdiē, also in a plural prīdiās, is the eve of a feast, a vigil.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being born a day earlier.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero in dates.[2][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar: prīdiē eius diēī.[2][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of the day before a plot.[2][6]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. On the day before;[2][3][1][7] prīdiē quam, the day before; in the time before.[2]
  2. (with accusative or genitive) On the day before (a date).[2][3]
  3. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) The eve of a feast, a vigil.[8]

Word family

  • prīdiānus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
Cite this entry

“Pridie.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/pridie. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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