Etymologically
Log in

proculco

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

prōculcō (present infinitive prōculcāre, perfect active prōculcāvī, supine prōculcātum); first conjugation[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + calcō (“to tread, trample”).[1][3][4] That verb is derived from calx1 (“heel”);[5] de Vaan finds the comparison of the noun with Baltic and Slavic words for parts of the leg, such as Lithuanian kulkšnìs (“ankle, ankle-bone”), doubtful at best, and notes that some scholars have argued for a non-Indo-European, possibly Etruscan, origin, though no concrete source word has been found.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Lucretius on.[3] In Lucretius a hidden force seems to trample (prōculcāre) the fine fasces and cruel axes.[1][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan.[2] Literally it is to tread down or trample, of horses' hooves in Virgil, of cavalry trampling their own reserves in Livy and of a boar trampling young crops in Ovid;[1][2] Columella uses it of animals treading out pulse and of treading grapes for must.[1] Curtius uses it of a squadron ridden down, and of marching over snows.[1][2] Figuratively it means to trample on or despise: Tacitus has prōculcātō senātū, “with the senate trampled underfoot”.[1][2] Gellius uses the participle of words made trite by common use.[1][2] The TLL notes that manuscripts often confuse it with conculcō.[3]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it figuratively, of a hidden force.[3][1][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of trampling hooves.[1][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of cavalry trampling their own men.[1][2][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of threshing and of treading grapes.[1][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus writes of the senate trampled underfoot.[1][6]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses the participle of trite words.[1][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To tread down, trample on.[1][2]
  2. To tread out (pulse in threshing, grapes in wine-making).[1]
  3. To ride down, overrun; to tread over, traverse.[1][2]
  4. (figurative) To trample on, crush, despise.[1][2][4]
  5. (participle) Made trite by constant use; blunted.[1][2]

Word family

  • prōculcātiō
  • proculcator

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de