prolatio

Forms

prōlātiō f (genitive prōlātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prōferō (“to bring forward; to extend; to put off”) + -tiō, formed on the participle stem ⟨prōlāt-⟩.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it once in verse, in Plautus,^[3] where it means delay: in the Miles gloriosus a list of excuses (“he's not at home, he's gone for a walk”) gives as much putting off as one likes.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In prose it is found from Cicero, Caesar and Livy on.^[3] Its senses follow the verb: postponement, in Cicero, Caesar and Tacitus;^[4] the adducing of examples in support of a case, in Cicero's Orator;^[2][4] and the enlargement of boundaries, in Livy.^[2][4] In later Latin it is the uttering of the voice, in Lactantius, and the pronouncing of a word, in Caelius Aurelianus.^[5][6]

In Ecclesiastical and medieval Latin it meant an utterance or pronouncement.^[7][8] British sources also use it for the bringing forth of a child, as in Bede, of fruit, and of a written work.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for putting off.^[2][10]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of adducing examples and of postponement.^[2][4][10]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of extending boundaries.^[2][10]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of uttering the voice.^[5][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The putting forward of examples in support of a case, adducing; mention.^[2][4]
2. Enlargement, extension (of boundaries).^[2][4]
3. Postponement, delay.^[2][4]
4. (Late Latin) Utterance; pronunciation.^[5][6][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) The bringing forth (of a child, fruit or a written work).^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 d e f g h Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de