Etymologically
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propugnaculum

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Forms

prōpugnāculum n (genitive prōpugnāculī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prōpugnō (“to fight in defence”) + -culum.[2][1][3] prōpugnō is from pugnō (“to fight”); de Vaan treats pugna and pugnus (“fist”) under pungō (“to prick”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *pung- (“to pierce, sting”).[4] Isidore and Servius also derive it from prōpugnō.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero, who calls a fleet the bulwark of Sicily.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a bulwark, tower, rampart or fortress: Virgil has bridges and bulwarks joined, and Tacitus walls strengthened and bulwarks added.[6] Abstractly it is protection: Celsus writes that the brain has more protection in the bone than without it.[2] In argument it is a defence: Cicero means to drive his opponent from the position from which he expects to meet all attacks.[2] Glossaries explain it as a tower.[3] Church Latin glosses it bulwark, rampart.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a fleet and of a defence in argument.[2][6][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of bulwarks.[6][5]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of the protection of the brain.[2][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of bulwarks added to walls.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bulwark, rampart, fortress, defence.[2][6][7][1]
  2. Protection.[2]
  3. A defence in argument.[2]

References

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