procer

Forms

procer m (genitive proceris); third declension^[1] The word is almost always plural, procerēs; the singular is found in Juvenal.^[2][3][4] Festus reports an old genitive plural procum in the account of Servius Tullius' classes.^[3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[4] The OLD suggests it adapts the plural of procus (“suitor”) on the model of pauperēs,^[2] and Wiktionary also derives it from procus, “standing in front”.^[1] The TLL notes that the word also named projecting beams, so that it should mean “prominent” rather than “rich”, and concludes that its true origin is not clear.^[4] De Vaan traces procus, originally one who asks for a woman in marriage, to Proto-Italic *prok-o- and Proto-Indo-European *proḱ-o- (“who asks”).^[5] Servius reports Varro's view that the leading citizens were so called because they stand out like the ends of beams in a building, and Isidore explains them as those who go before others in honour.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Plautus: “Troy is laid waste, the leaders tear down Pergamum”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means the leading men of a country or society, the nobles or chiefs, as in Accius, Cicero, Livy and Tacitus;^[2][3] Columella even uses it of the leaders of a swarm of bees.^[2][3] Seneca and Pliny the Elder extend it to the leading figures of a profession or art, the chief Stoics, the masters of painting, and ironically the leaders of gluttony.^[2] In building, Varro uses it for the projecting ends of beams.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “noble, prince, illustrious person”.^[6]

In medieval Latin the proceres are the great men of a realm, especially the lay magnates as distinct from the clergy, and the proceres palatii the great men of the royal household.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the leaders of Troy.^[2][8]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of the foremost of the leaders.^[2][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of projecting beam ends.^[2][8]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses the singular.^[2][3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly plural) The leading men, nobles, chiefs.^[2][3][1]
2. The leading figures of a profession or art.^[2]
3. (architecture) The projecting ends of beams.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) The great men of a realm, lay magnates.^[7]

Related words

• procus

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 n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de