prosterno

Forms

prōsternō (present infinitive prōsternere, perfect active prōstrāvī, supine prōstrātum); third conjugation^[1] Ovid has the short perfect infinitive prōstrāsse.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from prō- (“forward, before”) and sternō (“to spread, strew; to lay low”).^[2][3][1] The TLL notes that two old notions are blended in ⟨sternō⟩, “to throw to the ground” and “to spread on the ground”, and both show in the compound.^[4] De Vaan traces ⟨sternō⟩ to Proto-Italic *sterna- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *st(e)r-n-h₃- (“to spread, strew”), cognate with Sanskrit स्तृणाति (str̥ṇā́ti, “spreads out, strews”) and Ancient Greek στόρνυμι (stórnumi, “to spread, strew”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus,^[4] who has “you threatened to knock me down with a four-horse team” in the Menaechmi.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to knock someone down or lay low, of illness to strike down, as Cicero's man laid low on the third day, so that he could feign illness, and figuratively to debase, as Cicero's “will you so debase yourself as to think there is no difference between you and a beast?”.^[2][3] It is to knock things down, as Cicero's holy groves cut down and levelled.^[2] It is to stretch out on the ground, as in the Culex, and with sē to throw oneself down in submission, as Cicero's people who should prostrate themselves and beg the Roman people.^[2][3][1] Columella uses it of laying a vine shoot flat in a trench for layering.^[2]

It is also to defeat utterly or overthrow, as Cicero's enemies whom the army “laid low, routed and killed”, and to bring about the ruin of people or institutions.^[2][3][1] Church Latin glosses it “spread over, overthrow, cast to the ground, prostrate, fall down, strew”.^[6] English prostrate (mid-14th century) is from its participle prōstrātus.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of knocking a man down.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of prostrating oneself and of defeating enemies.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella of layering vines.^[2][8]
• mid-14th century – English prostrate is from its participle.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To knock down, lay low;^[2][3][1] (of illness) to strike down;^[2][3][1] to debase.^[2]
2. To throw down, level (things).^[2][1]
3. To stretch out on the ground;^[2][3][6] (reflexive) to prostrate oneself.^[2][3][6]
4. To lay (a vine shoot) flat for layering.^[2]
5. To overthrow, defeat utterly; to ruin.^[2][3][1][6]
6. To strew in front of.^[3][1][6]

Word family

• prostratio
• prostrator

Related words

• sternō
• strātus
• cōnsternō
• English prostrate

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 o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de