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proluo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word proluo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*louh₃-)

Forms

prōluō (present infinitive prōluere, perfect active prōluī, supine prōlūtum); third conjugation[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- (“forth”) + -luō (“to wash”), a compound of the verb found in alluō.[1] De Vaan explains the compounds in ⟨-luere⟩ as containing the verb lavō (“to wash”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *lowa- and Proto-Indo-European *louh₃- (“to wash”).[3] Cognate with Umbrian vutu and Ancient Greek λούω (loúō, “I wash”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest citation in the OLD is in Plautus, of pouring wine down the throat: propere prolue cloacam, “quick, flush the sewer”.[1][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, absent from Cicero and found once in Caesar.[2] Of water it means to sweep away: Caesar has a storm that washed the snow off all the mountains, and Virgil the river Eridanus sweeping away forests and the sea washing up fish on the shore like the bodies of the shipwrecked.[1][2] It also means to wash clean or wet: Ovid has washing one's hands in running water, Silius Italicus and Statius a sword or a breast drenched in blood.[2][1] In poetry it is used of drinking: Horace's leni praecordia mulso prolueris, “you will do better to wash your stomach with mild honey-wine”, Persius' lips not washed in the fountain of the horse (Hippocrene), and Virgil's pleno se proluit auro, drinking deep from a full golden cup.[1][2][4] Columella uses it of grass that purges an animal's belly,[1][2] and Gellius figuratively of people who washed their money away in gluttonous banquets.[1][2] Stelten gives “wash off or out” for Ecclesiastical Latin.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of washing out the stomach with wine.[1][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar, of a storm washing away snow.[1][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a river sweeping away forests.[1][6]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius, of squandering money.[1][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of water: to sweep away, wash away; to wash up (on the shore).[1][2]
  2. To wash clean, wash out; to drench, flood.[1][2]
  3. To wash (the mouth or stomach) with drink;[1][4] sē prōluere, to drink deep.[1][4]
  4. (figuratively) To squander (money).[2][4]

Word family

  • prōluviēs
  • prōluviō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Proluo.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/proluo. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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