proturbo

Forms

prōturbō (present infinitive prōturbāre, perfect active prōturbāvī, supine prōturbātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prō- + turbō¹ (“to disturb, throw into confusion”).^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and in Caesar,^[3] who has enemy horsemen easily beaten off and driven back.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It means to drive someone forth in confusion, to push out of the way or repel.^[2][4] Lewis & Short call it mostly post-Augustan and note that Cicero does not use it.^[4] The TLL finds it only once or twice each in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Caesar, Virgil, Ovid and Livy, and somewhat more often in Statius and Tacitus.^[3] Livy has enemies driven off with missiles, Columella drones driven out of the hive, and Justin a man driven into exile.^[4][5] Valerius Maximus and Apuleius use it of being pitched forward, for example from a horse, and Valerius Flaccus of the north wind driving Aeolus from his high throne.^[2] In poetry Ovid uses it of bearing down a forest, and Silius Italicus of forcing a panting murmur out of the breast.^[4][5] Stelten glosses it in Church Latin as "disturb".^[6]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[3][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of horsemen driven back.^[4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of enemies driven off with missiles.^[4]
• 1st century AD – Columella of drones driven from the hive.^[4][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, one of the authors who use it most.^[3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of being thrown off.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drive forth in confusion, push out of the way, repel.^[2][4][5][1]
2. To pitch (someone) forward, throw off.^[2]
3. (transferred) To make (someone) leave in a hurry.^[2]
4. (poetic) To bear down, overthrow (a forest); to force out (a sound).^[4][5]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To disturb.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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 j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de