proventus

Forms

prōventus m (genitive prōventūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prōveniō (“to come forth”) + -tus.^[2][3][1] The verb is a compound of prō- and veniō (“to come”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to come”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[5] but Lewis & Short say Cicero does not use it.^[6] The OLD's earliest examples are in Caesar: intenti pugnae proventum exspectabant, they waited intently for the outcome of the battle.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first concrete sense is a coming forth, the springing up and growth of plants and the increase of animals,^[2][6] as in Columella and Pliny the Elder.^[2] From this it is the produce or yield of a plant or field, a crop: Virgil has the year load the furrows with produce.^[2][6] With a sense of time it is the harvest, as in Pliny's turnips that last almost to the next crop.^[2] It was also used of the offspring of animals, and of a crop or supply of other things, as Quintilian's great crop of orators and Lucan's new crop of crimes.^[2]

From the outcome of an undertaking it came to mean its progress and success, as in Caesar.^[2] Church Latin used it for a result or issue, birth, revenue and increase,^[7] and in medieval Latin it was an event, and income or proceeds.^[8] It survives in provento and provento.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar, of the outcome of a battle and the success of earlier operations.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of the produce of the fields.^[2][6][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of the growth of fruit.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of growth, harvest and the young of bees.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A springing up, growth (of plants); increase (of animals).^[2][6][1]
2. Growth, advance (of abstract things).^[2]
3. Produce, yield, crop.^[2][6][1]
4. harvest.^[2]
5. Offspring, issue (of animals).^[2]
6. A crop, supply (of other things).^[2]
7. Progress, outcome; success.^[2][1]
8. (Medieval Latin) An event; income, proceeds.^[8]

Related words

• prōveniō
• veniō
• ēventus

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 p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill