procrastinatio

Forms

prōcrāstinātiō f (genitive prōcrāstinātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prōcrāstinō + -tiō, the noun of action of the verb meaning “to put off till tomorrow”.^[2][3][1] The verb is formed from prō (“forward”) and crāstinus (“of tomorrow”), which is derived from crās (“tomorrow”).^[1][4] De Vaan notes that no Proto-Indo-European word for “tomorrow” can be reconstructed, though ⟨crās⟩ could still be an old formation.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Cicero's Philippics: in conducting affairs, he says, slowness and procrastination are hateful.^[3][5][2]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the sense of delay, a putting off from one day to the next.^[2][5] Apuleius writes of business not put off or thrown into lazy delay, and Tertullian of parents who keep postponing a daughter's marriage.^[3] In letters and in the law codes the phrase “without any delay” became a formula: it occurs in a papal letter among Cyprian's and in the Theodosian and Justinian codes.^[3] The ancient glossaries equate it with the Greek words for delay.^[3]

Medieval writers used it for a delay or postponement, as Orderic Vitalis does,^[6] and English took it over in the 1540s.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, in the Philippics, calls procrastination hateful in the conduct of affairs.^[3][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius writes of business not thrown into lazy delay.^[3][8]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian writes of parents who delay a daughter's marriage.^[3][8]
• 1540s – English borrows it, from French and directly from Latin, as procrastination.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A putting off from day to day, procrastination, delay.^[2][5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de