protraho

Forms

prōtrahō (present infinitive prōtrahere, perfect active prōtrāxī, supine prōtractum); third conjugation^[1] Lucretius has the short perfect infinitive prōtrāxe, and Silius Italicus prōtrāxtis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- (“forth”) + trahō (“to draw, drag”).^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces trahō to Proto-Italic *traχe/o-, whose closest cognates are Celtic: Old Irish tráig (“ebb, beach”) and the preterite tethraig (“ran away, receded”), from a meaning to pull away.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Mercator, of a threat to drag a woman by the hair into the street.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is to drag or draw something forward or out, and figuratively to draw a person into a condition, as Plautus has a man brought to poverty.^[2] It is also to bring into the open or reveal, as Livy has a crime brought to light by an informer.^[2][1] Of time it is to draw out or prolong, as already in Accius, and to put off or defer, as Suetonius has soldiers' pay deferred.^[2] Terentianus Maurus uses it of lengthening a vowel.^[2] English protract came from its participle in the 1530s, and portray from the same verb through Old French.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of dragging someone out.^[2][6]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of drawing things out in time.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of bringing a crime to light.^[2][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of deferring pay.^[2][6]
• 1530s – English protract is formed from it.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drag or draw forward or out; to draw into a condition.^[2][3][1]
2. To bring to light, reveal, expose; to betray.^[2][8][1]
3. To draw out in time, prolong; to put off, defer; to lengthen a sound.^[2][8][1]
4. To extend, increase.^[2][1]

Word family

• prōtractiō
• prōtractus
• prōtractē

Related words

• abstrahō
• attrahō
• circumtrahō
• contrahō
• dētrahō
• distrahō
• extrahō
• intertrahō
• intrahō
• obtrahō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson