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propero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈprɔ.pɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈprɔː.pe.ro][1]

Forms

properō (present infinitive properāre, perfect active properāvī, supine properātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is formed from properus (“quick, hasty”) with the verb ending ⟨-ō⟩.[2][1] The origin of properus is doubtful: Walde and Hofmann suggested ⟨*pro-parāre⟩ “to bring forward”,[3] and Wiktionary derives it from prō- and the root of parō (“to prepare”), “readiness”.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus: properā, amābō, “hurry, please”.[2] Plautus also has quō properās?, “where are you hurrying to?”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Properāre is intransitively “to act with haste, hurry, be quick”, often in commands with a second verb (properā atque abī, “hurry up and go”), “to be in a hurry”, and “to go quickly” to a place (Cicero: properāns Brundisium, “hurrying to Brundisium”).[2][1] Transitively it is “to do or prepare in haste” (Plautus: properāte prandium, “get lunch ready quickly”) and “to hasten, speed up”;[2][4][1] L&S note that this use is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, as in Sallust.[2][4][1]

Church Latin glosses it “hasten, hurry”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: properā, amābō;[2][3] quō properās?.[2][3]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: properāns Brundisium.[2][3]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it transitively.[4][3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To hurry, be quick, make haste.[2][4][1][5]
  2. To be in a hurry.[2]
  3. To go quickly, hasten (to a place).[2][1]
  4. To do or prepare in haste; to speed up, accelerate.[2][4][1]

Word family

  • approperō
  • dēproperō
  • exproperō
  • improperātus
  • improperō
  • properabilis
  • properantia
  • properātim
  • properātiō
  • properanter
  • properus
  • properē

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson