prolicio

Forms

prōliciō (present infinitive prōlicere); third conjugation^[1][2] The Tironian notes have a perfect prōlixit.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + laciō (“to entice”).^[1][5][2][6] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *lak-i- (“to draw, pull”) for the verb stem; the simple verb is attested only in Paulus' abridgement of Festus and is probably a nonce form, while in the compounds the stem may simply have meant “to draw”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[7][4] in the Curculio, where love of wine lures a speaker here through the darkness: eius amor cupidam mē hūc prōlicit per tenebrās.^[1][3]

Semantic evolution

It meant to lure forward or entice forth, used by poets and in post-Augustan prose.^[3] Pacuvius already used it with a personal object,^[8] Ovid says that the pleasure of love must be drawn out by slow delay,^[1][3] and Tacitus uses it of luring others on to hope.^[1][5] Statius uses it of the Aonian seer coaxing Laius forth,^[1][4] This led to the sense “provoke a state of affairs”: Tacitus speaks of fearing that a riot might provoke bloodshed and arms.^[1][2] The glossaries explain it with prōmerērī.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of being lured somewhere through the dark.^[1][9]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses it in a fragment.^[8][9]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of drawing out pleasure.^[1][9]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of luring men to hope and of provoking violence.^[1][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lure forward, entice forth, lead on.^[1][3][8]
2. To call forth; to provoke, stir up (a state of affairs).^[1][2]

Word family

• prōlectō

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de