protrudo

Forms

prōtrūdō (present infinitive prōtrūdere, perfect active prōtrūsī, supine prōtrūsum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- (“forward”) + trūdō (“to thrust”).^[2][3][1] trūdō goes back to Proto-Italic *treude/o- and Proto-Indo-European *treud- (“to push, thrust”).^[4] De Vaan compares Welsh cythrudd (“to vex”), Lithuanian triū̃sas (“work, effort”) and Old Norse þrjóta (“to lack”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short quote a line of the comic poet Afranius about someone thrust out of the house, but the TLL marks that reading as doubtful.^[5][3] Lucretius uses it of the body being pushed forward,^[2][6] and Cicero of someone who pushes a cylinder and so gives it the beginning of its motion.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is to push forward:^[2][5] Horace has a man who pushed his donkey onto the rocks, Vitruvius stones that do not push the work outward, and Gellius south winds that drive the waves on.^[2][6] It also meant to thrust out: Phaedrus has someone thrown out of doors head first, and Ammianus someone thrust out of doors.^[2][6][5] Cicero uses it of time, of putting off elections to January.^[2][5]

English protrude comes from it; it is recorded from the 1610s, first in the sense to thrust forward.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the body being pushed forward.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of pushing a cylinder and of putting off elections.^[2][8]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of someone thrown out of doors.^[2][8]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it of being thrust out of doors.^[5][8]
• 1610s – English borrows protrude.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To push or thrust forward.^[2][5]
2. To thrust or drive out, expel.^[2][6]
3. (of time) To put off, postpone.^[2][5]

Related words

• trūdō
• dētrūdō
• obtrūdō
• English protrude

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de