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protinus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈproː.tɪ.nʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈprɔː.ti.nus][1]

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

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