Etymologically
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prolabor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [proːˈɫaː.bɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [proˈlaː.bor][1]

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

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