proluvies

Forms

prōluviēs f (genitive prōluviēī); fifth declension^[1] The genitive singular prōluviēī is attested only by the grammarian Charisius; the texts have the nominative, vocative, accusative and ablative singular.^[2] Medieval manuscripts often spell it prolubies.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin prōluō (“to wash forth, flood”) + -iēs.^[3][1][2] De Vaan treats the verbs in -luō as compounds of lavō (“to wash”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *lowa- and Proto-Indo-European *(le-)louh₃- (“to wash”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Lucretius, both of an overflow of water washing the rocks and of a black discharge from the bowels.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Its two senses run side by side from the start: a flood or overflow, as in a letter of Cicero describing a remarkable flood at Rome, above all on the Appian Way by the temple of Mars, and a discharge from the body, especially of the bowels.^[3][6] Virgil calls the discharge of the bowels foedissima ventris proluvies “a most foul outpouring of the belly”, and Columella uses it of the same in animals.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of an overflow and of a discharge of the bowels.^[3][6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a flood at Rome.^[6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a foul discharge of the belly.^[6][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a discharge in animals.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An overflow, flood, inundation.^[3][6]
2. A discharge from the body, especially from the bowels.^[3][6]

Related words

• alluviō
• prōluō
• dīluviēs
• ēluviēs
• lavō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press