Etymologically
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protelum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [proːˈteː.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [proˈtɛː.lum][1]

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

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