pratum Latin · revision 4932

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=inherited|attested=Plautus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈpraː.tũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpraː.tum]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''prātum''' ''n'' (genitive prātī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*prāto-]], of uncertain origin.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Etymonline) Steinbauer's [[ine-pro|*prh₃-to-|t=what has been allotted]] is the more attractive in meaning, while Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny's link with [[sga|ráth|t=earthen wall]] is semantically weak.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus uses it.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Gaffiot 2016) Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Classical Latin it was a meadow or meadowland, as Cato's watered and dry meadows, which were manured and mown for hay, and in poetry the grass that grows there.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) Cicero uses it of the broad expanse of the sea, ''Neptūnia prāta'', and Gellius mentions a miscellany titled ''Prātum''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ In medieval Britain it was often a water-meadow, and measures of meadow were common in charters.^(DMLBS) Through Vulgar Latin *prātāria and Old French ''praerie'' it gave English ''prairie''.^(Etymonline) It survives as [[it|prato]], [[fr|pré]] and [[es|prado]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato distinguishes watered and dry meadows.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 165 AD – Gellius mentions a miscellany titled ''Prātum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1773 – English ''prairie'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|meadow]], meadowland.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(poetic)'' Grass, what grows in a meadow.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)

+ # A broad expanse (of the sea).^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pariō]]

+ * [[en|prairie]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Isidore says the meadow, whose hay feeds the herds, was named by the old Romans because it is ready at once (''parātum'') and needs little work.^(Isidore)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}