Etymologically
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proclivis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [proːˈkliː.wɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [proˈkliː.vis][1]

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

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