propinquitas

Forms

propinquitās f (genitive propinquitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin propinquus (“near”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] The adjective propinquus is formed from prope (“near”), which de Vaan, following Dunkel, traces to Proto-Indo-European *própro (“on and on, ever further”), with loss of the second ⟨r⟩.^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit प्रप्र (prá-pra, “on and on”) and Ancient Greek πρόπρο (própro, “before; on and on”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose Aulularia has “the closer you join yourself to good people by kinship, the better”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first recorded sense is kinship, and in the plural it means family ties or relatives; it is also closeness of association.^[2][5] Of place it is nearness or proximity, as Cicero's Aricia, almost a neighbour of Rome, and Pacuvius uses it of nearness in time.^[2][5] Fronto applies it to a relation between words.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “relationship, nearness”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of kinship.^[2][4][7]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of nearness in time.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of nearness in place.^[2][7]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English as propinquity, partly through Old French.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Nearness in place or time, proximity.^[2][5][1]
2. Kinship, relationship; relatives; intimacy.^[2][5][1]
3. A connection between things.^[2]

Related words

• appropinquātiō
• appropinquō
• prope
• propinquē
• propinquus
• English propinquity

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com