profor

Forms

profor (present infinitive profārī or profārier, perfect active profātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] Prudentius has the old infinitive profārier.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- (“forth”) + for (“to speak”).^[3][4][1] De Vaan traces for to Proto-Italic *fā- (“to speak”) and Proto-Indo-European *bheh2- (“to speak”).^[5] Cognate with Ancient Greek φημί (phēmí, “I say”) and Oscan faamat.^[5] The TLL explains the compound from an ancient verb meaning “to announce”, also seen in Ancient Greek προφήτης (prophḗtēs, “prophet”), and compares other old compounds of verbs of speaking with “forth”, such as profiteor.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest citation in the OLD is Livius Andronicus, of the day foretold by the Fate Morta: quando dies adveniet, quam profata Morta est.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

It means to speak out, give utterance, as Virgil's Dido, who speaks briefly with lowered face,^[3] and, with an object, to tell or announce something, as in Pacuvius' line about being ashamed to tell one's father's name.^[3] It is also to give warning or prophesy, as the Pythia speaking from Apollo's tripod in Lucretius,^[3] and Accius has it with an object, to relate.^[2] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^[2] In Church Latin it means to speak out, speak on behalf of, tell, predict, or propose.^[7]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus, of a day foretold by Fate.^[3][6]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius, of telling a name.^[3][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of the Pythia prophesying.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of Dido speaking.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To speak out, give utterance.^[3][2][1]
2. To tell, announce, relate.^[3][2][7]
3. To give warning, prophesy; to foretell.^[3][7]

Word family

• profātum
• profātus

Related words

• for
• fātum
• fāma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson