profligatus

Forms

prōflīgātus (feminine prōflīgāta, neuter prōflīgātum, superlative prōflīgātissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin prōflīgō (“to strike down, overthrow”).^[2][1][3] That verb is a compound of prō- and flīgō (“to strike”),^[4] a verb de Vaan finds in Livius Andronicus and Accius and connects with Ancient Greek φλίβω (phlíbō, “to rub, crush”) and Latvian blaîzît (“to squeeze, beat, rub”), though the forms cannot be traced to one identical preform.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[6] who in the Verrine speeches calls the senatorial courts perdita profligataque, “ruined and wretched”, and has the superlative omnium mortalium profligatissime ac perditissime, “most abandoned and most depraved of all men”.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short separate the senses “wretched, vile” and, morally, “corrupt, dissolute, abandoned”;^[3] the OLD gives only “dissolute, depraved”.^[2] Georges adds a use of time, “far advanced”, as Seneca's profligatae aetatis, “of advanced age”, and the phrase in profligato esse, “to be nearly finished”, which Gellius records.^[7] That use follows the verb, which also meant to bring something almost to an end.^[3] Etymonline traces English profligate to it: in the 1520s the English word meant “overthrown, routed”, from the 1640s “ruined in morals”, and by 1779 “recklessly extravagant”.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, “wretched” and “abandoned, depraved”.^[3][7][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of age “far advanced”.^[7][6]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius records in profligato esse, “nearly finished”.^[7][6]
• 1520s – Borrowed into English as profligate, “overthrown”.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Wretched, miserable, vile.^[3]
2. Dissolute, profligate, depraved.^[2][3][1]
3. Of time or age: far advanced;^[7] in profligātō esse, to be nearly finished.^[7]

Related words

• prōflīgō
• afflīgō
• cōnflīgō
• English profligate

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn