Etymologically
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proficiscor

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [prɔ.fɪˈkiːs.kɔr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [pro.fiˈt͡ʃis.kor][1]

Forms

proficīscor (present infinitive proficīscī, perfect active profectus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1] Plautus and Turpilius have an active proficīscō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from prō- “forward” and faciō “to make” with the inchoative suffix -scō, first “to put oneself forward”.[2][4][3] Wiktionary derives it from prōficiō “to advance”; the TLL thinks it was formed from ⟨facere⟩ in the same way as ⟨prōficere⟩, but perhaps independently of it.[1][3] De Vaan derives faciō from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-k- (“to make”), an extension of *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has potin ut mē īre quō profectus sum sinās?, “will you let me go where I set out for?”[2]

Semantic evolution

Proficīscī is “to set out, start on a journey, depart”.[2][4][1] Figuratively it is to proceed to a new topic or embark on a course of action, and to begin from a starting point (Cicero on Xenophon, ā philosophiā profectus, “starting from philosophy”).[2] Of things it means “to come from, originate” (Varro: the word ambāgēs profectum ā verbō ambe, “derived from the word ambe”).[2]

Döderlein says proficīscī denotes only the start of a journey, iter facere and peregrīnārī its duration.[6] Church Latin glosses it “set out, go, proceed, travel”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: quō profectus sum.[2][8]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: rēctā domum sumus profectī, “we set out straight for home”.[2][8]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of words derived from others.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To set out, depart, start on a journey.[2][4][1][7]
  2. To proceed (to a topic); to embark on (a course of action).[2][7]
  3. To begin (from).[2]
  4. To come from, originate, be derived (from).[2]

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 m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de