promereo

Forms

prōmereō (present infinitive prōmerēre, perfect active prōmeruī, supine prōmeritum); second conjugation^[1] The deponent prōmereor, prōmerērī, prōmeritus sum is used in the same senses, from Plautus on.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + mereō (“to earn, deserve”).^[2][1] The TLL reports Leumann's view that the noun prōmeritum came first, from the phrase ⟨prō meritō⟩ “according to merit”, and that the verb was formed from it, while Hofmann and Szantyr explain it otherwise.^[4] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *mer-ē- (“to earn”) for mereō, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mr-eh₁- (“to earn”), and compares Ancient Greek μείρομαι (meíromai, “to receive one's share”) and μέρος (méros, “part, share”); he finds the verb formation problematic.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD date it from Plautus,^[5][2] who uses both the active and the deponent: quid malī sum, ere, tuā ex rē prōmeritus?, “what harm have I deserved at your hands, master?”^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to earn or deserve, of reward or punishment, often with ut and a clause,^[2][3] and with adverbs, bene or male prōmerērī dē aliquō, to deserve well or ill of someone.^[2] Cicero and Ovid use it of the punishment someone has earned.^[3] From Propertius and Statius on it also means to win or gain, and to win over a person or the gods:^[2] Suetonius and Pliny the Younger use it of gaining love, goodwill or favour.^[3][6]

Lactantius uses it of winning people's good opinion,^[6] and Church Latin kept the senses of meriting, obtaining and acquiring.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the active and the deponent.^[2][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of deserving someone's love.^[3][8]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it in the sense “to gain, win”.^[2][8]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of winning the favour of the gods.^[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To merit, deserve, earn (a reward or punishment); with ut, to deserve that.^[2][3]
2. With bene, male and dē: to deserve well (or ill) of someone, do someone a good (or bad) turn.^[2]
3. To deserve well of, serve (a person).^[2]
4. To obtain by one's own actions, win, gain; to win over (a person, the gods).^[2][6]

Word family

• prōmeritum

Related words

• commereō
• dēmereō
• ēmereō
• mereō
• permereō

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 k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de