protinus

Forms

prōtinus (not comparable)^[1] It is also spelled prōtenus, and Afranius has prōtenis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from prō (“forward”) and tenus (“as far as”).^[2][3][1] The TLL suggests it began in phrases such as ⟨*prō tenus īre⟩, with an old noun ⟨tenus⟩ “the length of a way”, and that the link with hāctenus and quātenus kept its vowel from being weakened.^[4] Wiktionary connects that word with Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”), as in tendō (“to stretch out”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of going straight on.^[2][5] Lewis & Short note that the spatial sense, “forward, farther on”, is rare.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Prōtinus is first “forward, straight on” from a point (Caesar, Virgil), also of continuing a process, and “directly on, from there on” in space.^[2][3][1] Its common sense is temporal: “immediately, at once” (prōtinus ut, as soon as) and “from the very start”.^[2][1] Quintilian also uses it for “by the same act, at the same time” and of a necessary consequence, “automatically”.^[2]

Church Latin refers it to the spelling prōtenus.^[6] Lewis & Short give statim, continuō and āctūtum as synonyms.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of going straight on.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for “immediately”.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian: “at the same time”, “necessarily”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Forward, straight on, onward.^[2][3][1]
2. Directly on, from there on.^[2]
3. immediately, at once, forthwith; from the start.^[2][3][1]
4. Continuously, without a break.^[1]
5. At the same time; necessarily.^[2]

Word family

• protinam

Related words

• tenus
• statim
• continuō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson