prudentia

Forms

prūdentia f (genitive prūdentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prūdēns (“foreseeing, skilled”) + -ia.^[2][1][3] prūdēns is a contraction of ⟨*prōvidēns⟩, from prōvideō (“to foresee”);^[4][1] de Vaan derives videō from Proto-Indo-European *wid-éh₁- (“to see”).^[4] Cicero already connected it with foreseeing (⟨ex prōvidendō⟩).^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler first records it in Cicero.^[6] An unnamed early tragedian has perspicax prūdentia (keen-sighted shrewdness) in a line about Palamedes, and Cicero uses it in Dē inventiōne.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Prūdentia is practical wisdom, good sense and sagacity, Cicero says that the wise man's foresight is why wisdom is called prūdentia.^[2][5] It is also skill or practical knowledge in a field, especially in law, and, rarely, foreknowledge (Cicero: futūrōrum prūdentia, Virgil, of the seer Helenus).^[2][5][1]

Döderlein says the prūdēns and the callidus choose the right means, while the sapiēns chooses the right ends.^[7] Church Latin glosses it “prudence, wisdom, understanding, discretion”.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in Dē inventiōne.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: futūrōrum prūdentia.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the foreknowledge of Helenus.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Practical wisdom, good sense, prudence.^[2][5][1][8]
2. Knowledge, skill (in a field).^[2][1]
3. Foresight, foreknowledge.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• iūrisprūdentia

Related words

• prūdēns
• prōvideō
• videō
• sapientia

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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson