Etymologically
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propello

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [proːˈpɛl.loː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [proˈpɛl.lo][1]

Forms

prōpellō (present infinitive prōpellere, perfect active prōpulī, supine prōpulsum); third conjugation[1] Lucretius scans the first syllable short.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + pellō (“to push, drive”).[2][4] De Vaan traces ⟨pellō⟩ to Proto-Italic *pelnā- and Proto-Indo-European *pl-n(e)-h₂- (“to approach”), cognate with Umbrian ampentu (“to bring near, touch”) and Ancient Greek πίλναμαι (pílnamai, “to approach”); the sense would have shifted from bringing something near to pushing it.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan lists it among the compounds of ⟨pellō⟩;[5] the OLD's earliest example is Plautus' Rudens, where someone pushed the old priestess away and shoved her forward in a shameful way.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means “to push forward, propel”, also of natural forces, and “to drive onwards”, as of herds driven to water in Varro.[2] It is also to push over, as Ovid's woods crashing down, and to push or drive away: Caesar has hurdles pushed aside and enemies driven off with slings and arrows, and Nepos a people expelling the leaders of the other faction.[2] Figuratively it is to drive or impel someone to an action, as Cicero's brotherly love carrying a man too far, and in Fronto to put off.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “drive out or away, propel”.[6] English propel (mid-15th century) first meant “to drive away, expel”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of pushing someone forward.[2][8]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of warding off the unjust.[2][8]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of driving enemies away.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a man driven on by love.[2][8]
  • mid-15th century – English propel.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To push or thrust forward, propel; to drive onwards.[2][3][1][6]
  2. To push over, overthrow; to push out of place.[2][1]
  3. To push away, drive off, repel; to banish; to ward off.[2][1]
  4. To put off, postpone.[2]
  5. To drive or impel to an action.[2][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de