protervus

Forms

protervus (feminine proterva, neuter protervum, comparative protervior); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The older spelling proptervus occurs in Plautus and Pacuvius.^[2][3] Plautus, Terence and other early poets apparently scan the first syllable long, later poets short.^[4]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Italic *propetes-wo- (“rushing forward”), with the regular change of /sw/ to /rw/, as Rix proposed; the TLL explains the older form ⟨proptervus⟩ the same way, the second /p/ being lost by dissimilation.^[2][3][1] De Vaan takes the preform as a blend of *pro-petēs (“inclined, hasty”), matching Ancient Greek προπετής (propetḗs, “falling forward, precipitate”), and a *petes-wo- (“provided with impetus”), built on Proto-Indo-European *pet-os (“impetus, haste”), the noun of the root of petō (“to aim at, seek”).^[2] He finds the older etymologies with a word for wing semantically unsatisfactory; the OLD still gives one, comparing πτέρυξ (ptérux, “wing”).^[2][4] Donatus, and Lewis & Short after him, connected it with prōterō (“to trample down”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[2] who in the Bacchides joins it with petulans and iracundus of a reckless, violent temper.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is bold, violent or reckless, and the poets apply it to winds, as Horace and Ovid do.^[4][5] From Terence on it also means impudent, shameless or forward, a sense common in classical prose.^[4][5]

Döderlein sets it among the words for offences against modesty: the protervus sins through impetuosity and haughty recklessness, the petulans through wantonness and needless attack, the prōcāx through importunity.^[6] In Church Latin it is glossed stubborn, insolent.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a violent, reckless temper.^[4][2][8]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius has the older form ⟨proptervus⟩.^[2][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence in the sense impudent.^[4][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of violent winds.^[5][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bold, violent, reckless; of winds, violent, vehement.^[4][5][1]
2. Impudent, shameless, forward, wanton.^[4][5][1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Stubborn, insolent.^[7]

Word family

• proterviō

Related words

• petō
• petulans

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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 g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b 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