Etymologically
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prospero

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Pronunciation

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

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]
  • 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