prolabor

Forms

prōlābor (present infinitive prōlābī, perfect active prōlāpsus sum); third conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + lābor (“to glide, slip”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists lābor and its compounds under labō “to totter”, but doubts that the two stems belong together;^[4] Wiktionary suggests Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₂b- (“to hang loosely, be weak”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short quote Accius, cited by Cicero, of the sea: a mass that has slid forward rushes down.^[5] Cicero's Aratea has one of the Fishes gliding a little ahead.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to slide or slip forward;^[2] Apuleius has blood that has flowed from a head, and Cicero uses it of running on too long in a speech and of a passion that has gone to an extreme.^[2] Things slide out of place: Lucretius has the earth sinking back into its seat.^[2] It is to slip from a place, as a statue's crown that fell into its hand by itself in Livy,^[2] and to lapse into a condition, as a victor's mind into pity.^[2] It is to overbalance, as a rider with his horse in Propertius, and of buildings to give way, as a temple of Jupiter in Nepos.^[2] Cicero also has it of falling into error from fear and of the young who have so declined that they must be restrained.^[2] Lewis & Short note that in Cicero it is most often figurative.^[5] Church Latin glosses it to fall away, lapse, fail.^[6]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a mass sliding forward.^[5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a constellation, of a long speech and of decline.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the earth sinking back.^[2][7]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos of a collapsing temple.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a falling crown and a mind lapsing into pity.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To glide, slide or slip forward; of liquids, to flow forth; to run on in a speech.^[2][5][1]
2. To slide out of position; to slip from a place, drop.^[2]
3. To lapse into a practice or state; to fall into error.^[2][6]
4. To fall over; of buildings, to give way, collapse.^[2][5][1]
5. To fall into decay, decline, degenerate.^[2][1]

Word family

• prōlāpsiō
• prolapsus

Related words

• lābor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de