procumbo

Forms

prōcumbō (present infinitive prōcumbere, perfect active prōcubuī, supine prōcubitum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from prō- (“forward”) and ⟨-cumbō⟩, the nasal form of cubō (“to lie”) used in compounds.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Lucretius, who says that piety is not “to bow down, prostrate on the ground, before the shrines of the gods”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is to bend forward, as Virgil's rowers straining at the oars, to bow down in worship or supplication, as in Lucretius, and to throw one's weight forward, Pliny the Elder uses it of a mountain sloping to the sea.^[2] It is to lie down, as Virgil's “he lay down and gave rest to his limbs”, and in Curtius of a plain spreading out.^[2]

It is also to fall forward or fall down, of the wounded and dying, as Caesar's men who “fall down unhurt”, and figuratively to fall to ruin, as Virgil's house of Evander, or to sink into vice, as Seneca's men who “sank wholly into the tavern and the belly”.^[2][4] Church Latin glosses it “lean or bend forward, sink down, bow”.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of prostrating oneself.^[2][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of falling down.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of leaning forward, lying down and ruin.^[2][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of moral decline.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bend or lean forward; to prostrate oneself, bow down, (of land) to slope down.^[2][1][5]
2. To lie down, (of land) to spread out.^[2]
3. To fall forward, fall down, (figurative) to fall to ruin, sink.^[2][1][4]

Word family

• prōcubitor

Related words

• cubō
• prōcubō
• incumbō
• succumbō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson