Etymologically
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provisus

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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