provisus

Forms

prōvīsus m (genitive prōvīsūs); fourth declension, found only in the ablative singular prōvīsū^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin prōvideō (“to foresee, provide”) + -tus.^[1][3] The verb is a compound of prō- and videō (“to see”),^[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *wid-ē- (“to see”) and Proto-Indo-European *uid-eh1- (“to see”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short call it Tacitean,^[2] and Köbler records it first in Tacitus,^[5] who uses it of seeing ahead: in a battle at night ne oculi quidem provisu iuvabant, “not even the eyes helped by looking ahead”.^[1][3]

Semantic evolution

Tacitus also uses it of foreseeing a danger, of the providence of the gods, and with a genitive of making provision for affairs.^[1][2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means provision or precaution,^[6] and in medieval British Latin forethought, including divine providence.^[7]

Timeline

• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of looking ahead, of foresight and of making provision.^[1][2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The faculty of seeing ahead.^[1][2]
2. Foresight, forethought;^[1][2] with a genitive, the making of provision for.^[1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Provision, precaution.^[6]

Usage notes

Prōvīsus, -a, -um is also the perfect participle of prōvideō, “foreseen, provided for”.^[2][3] Niermeyer records the medieval phrases prōvīsō quod and prōvīsō ut, “provided that”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill