propere

Forms

properē (not comparable)^[1] A form properiter is also found.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the adverb of properus (“hasty, quick”), formed with -ē.^[4][1][5] The OLD calls the adjective of doubtful origin.^[4] Wiktionary takes it from prō- (“forward”) and the root of parō (“to prepare”), meaning “readiness”;^[1] de Vaan reports Panagl and Lindner's view that properō (“to hurry”) was an old compound ⟨*prō-parāre⟩ “to bring forward, urge on”, with ⟨properus⟩ made back from it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “a business has been thrown at me suddenly, hastily and quickly” in the Curculio;^[6] Köbler also gives Plautus.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is speedily, quickly or without delay, often in Plautus and in Livy, as his consuls who arrived in haste.^[4][6] Tacitus also uses it for readily, without hesitation: men “readily follow what they are loath to begin”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a hasty business.^[6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of consuls who intervened in haste.^[6][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of following readily.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Hastily, quickly, without delay.^[4][1][6]
2. Readily, without hesitation.^[4]

Related words

• properus
• properō
• festīnō
• celeriter

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften