proclivis

Forms

prōclīvis (neuter prōclīve, comparative prōclīvior); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] A first/second-declension form prōclīvus is used by Plautus, Varro, Catullus and Frontinus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + clīvus (“slope”) + -is, a possessive compound “having a slope forward”, made with the same suffix as īnsignis or triennis.^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces clīvus to Proto-Italic *kle/oiwo- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱloi-uo- (“slope, hill”) or Proto-Indo-European *ḱlei-u̯o- (“sloping”), comparing Lithuanian šleĩvas (“bow-legged”) and Old High German hlēo (“grave mound”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates the adjective from Plautus and the neuter noun prōclīve “downward slope” from Naevius.^[5][6] In Plautus a speaker says that the place where he is told to set down a purse slopes away.^[2][2]

Semantic evolution

It is sloping downwards, going downhill, and of movement downward, as Lucretius' waves; the declamations ascribed to Quintilian use it of a declining age.^[2] In early Latin it is figuratively steep, difficult, the opposite of plānus “level”: Plautus has a character promise to make a matter level out of steep.^[2] More often it is easy, as though helped down a slope: Cicero sets easy things before laborious ones.^[2] It is also inclined, prone or liable to something, as Terence says that all men's nature inclines from toil to pleasure.^[2] Lewis & Short find the literal sense rare and not in Cicero or Caesar.^[3] Döderlein distinguishes prōnus, inclination in general, from prōclīvis, more often an inclination to something good, and prōpēnsus, to something bad.^[7] Church Latin keeps the sense sloping, steep, downhill.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius has the noun prōclīve.^[5][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a slope.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of the inclination to pleasure.^[2]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of downward movement.^[2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of easy things.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sloping downwards, downhill; of movement, downward; of age, declining.^[2][3][1][8]
2. (early Latin) Steep, difficult.^[2][1]
3. Easy, effortless.^[2][1]
4. Inclined, prone, liable.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• prōclīvitās

Related words

• clīvus
• acclīvis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson