protelum

Forms

prōtēlum n (genitive prōtēlī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + tendō (“to stretch”), with an instrument suffix: the OLD and the TLL start from an earlier ⟨*prō-ten-slo-⟩, the ⟨-slo-⟩ suffix being the one they also see in pālus¹ (“stake”) and scāla (“ladder”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan reconstructs ⟨*prō-tend-slo-⟩, an “instrument for pulling forth”, but allows a form with the root variant Proto-Indo-European *tens- as well.^[4] The TLL thinks it first named a farm implement.^[3]

It lives on in Italian trapelo, an extra horse harnessed to a team, and in dialect words of the Alps, northern Italy and France for the pole of a cart or a sledge.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Cato on,^[4] in a fragment quoted by Nonius: prōtēlō trīnī bovēs ūnum arātrum dūcent, “three oxen in tandem will draw one plough”.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It named the towrope by which oxen were yoked one behind another to a plough instead of side by side,^[6] and so a team of animals harnessed in a row: Pliny the Elder writes of teams of two or three for ploughing.^[5][6] Lucilius uses it in the phrase prōtēlō dūcere.^[6]

Lucretius used it figuratively for an unbroken succession, of particles kept in motion by a continued series of blows, and has quasi prōtēlō “as if in one continuous line”.^[2][5][6] A Greek gloss renders it as ἔξαμπρον (éxampron), the towrope.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of three oxen drawing a plough in tandem.^[5][7]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it in prōtēlō dūcere.^[6][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of an unbroken succession of blows.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of teams of oxen.^[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A towrope by which draught animals were harnessed one behind another;^[6][5] prōtēlō, in tandem.^[6][5]
2. A tandem arrangement of draught animals; a team harnessed in a row.^[2][5]
3. (figurative) An unbroken succession, continuous line.^[2][5]

Word family

• prōtēlō

Related words

• tēmō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b 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 f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de