prospero

Forms

prosperō (present infinitive prosperāre, perfect active prosperāvī, supine prosperātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prosperus (“fortunate, favourable”) + -ō.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first:^[2][4] in the Persa a speaker means to do a favour to a friend and to treat himself well.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to make something succeed, to further: Livy quotes an old prayer asking the gods to give the Roman people power and victory, and Tacitus has prayers that the gods may bless an undertaking.^[5][6] Horace prays that the senate's decrees may prosper, and Apuleius describes gods who avert evil and further good.^[5][4] Valerius Maximus uses it of birds giving no favourable sign.^[2][5]

In Christian Latin it also meant to make propitious, as in Prudentius,^[5][6] and the Vulgate has o Domine bene prosperare in Psalm 117 (118);^[5] Stelten gives the ecclesiastical sense “to succeed, prosper”.^[7] English prosper comes from it, partly through French, in the mid-14th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of doing a favour to a friend.^[2][9]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in the Carmen saeculare.^[5][9]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy quotes it from an old form of prayer.^[5][9]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the gods blessing an undertaking.^[5][9]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in the Psalms and Jeremiah.^[5][9]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it as prosper.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make (a plan or aim) succeed, help forward, further.^[2][5]
2. To grant, bestow (as a favour).^[4][5]
3. (intransitive) To do a favour to someone; of omens, to be favourable.^[2][4]
4. (Late Latin) To make propitious.^[5][6]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To prosper, succeed.^[7]

Related words

• English prosper

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de