prostituo

Forms

prōstituō (present infinitive prōstituere, perfect active prōstituī, supine prōstitūtum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + statuō (“to set up, place”), literally “to set up in front, expose publicly”.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus, meaning to prostitute: in the Pseudolus a speaker threatens “tomorrow I will prostitute you to the people”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Catullus has a woman who prostitutes herself with her whole body,^[6][5] and a fragment of a speech of Cicero uses it of improper sexual use of a man.^[2] Cato already used it figuratively, of exposing someone's reputation to shame,^[2][4] and Ovid has a voice prostituted to the ungrateful forum and sins exposed to ill repute;^[2][5] Seneca says that philosophy has prostituted itself.^[5] Suetonius, Seneca the Elder and Lactantius use it of prostituting chastity or bodies.^[4] The TLL notes that poets use it only in a few places.^[3]

The literal sense “to place in front” is recorded only late, in Tertullian and Arnobius.^[4][5] Ecclesiastical Latin also used it for “dishonour, sully”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for “prostitute”.^[2][8]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of exposing a reputation to shame.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it for putting to an unworthy use.^[2][8]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for “place in front”.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prostitute, put to the uses of prostitution; to put to improper sexual use.^[2][6]
2. To put to an unworthy use for gain.^[2]
3. To expose to public shame, dishonour.^[2][4]
4. (Late Latin) To place in front.^[4][5]

Word family

• prostitūta
• prōstitūtiō
• prostitutor
• prostitūtus

References

1. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de