prot

Forms

prot (feminine protã, masculine plural prots, feminine plural proti or prote)^[1]

• Other spellings: PROT, feminine -tă, plural proț, próte, in Papahagi's dictionary;^[2] prótu-ă in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[3] πρώτου (protu) in the Greek script of Nikolaidis;^[4] Πρώτου in Kavalliotis's word list.^[5]
• The adverb prota "first, at first" goes with it;^[2][6][1] Papahagi heads it -PRÓTA and Mihăileanu prota.^[2][6][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek πρώτος (prótos, “first”),^[2][7][8] and the adverb prota is the Greek adverb πρώτα (próta, “first, at first”).^[2][7] The Modern Greek word continues Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos, “foremost, first”), recorded since the Iliad.^[9][10]

Beekes relates it to Sanskrit पूर्व (pū́rva, “former, first”) and Lithuanian pirmas (“first”), from Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-uo- and *prh₃-mo-, with the ordinal suffix of τρίτος (trítos, “third”); the Doric form πρᾶτος (prâtos) points to another laryngeal, so the reconstruction remains a problem.^[10][11] Beekes and Frisk both reject a base *πρό-ατος (*pró-atos), which could explain the Attic form but not the Doric one.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where Πρώτου translates Modern Greek πρώτος (prótos, “first”).^[5]

Semantic evolution

From "first in order" the adjective came to mean "foremost, leading": Papahagi quotes the leading Aromanians in flocks and bravery, and Mihăileanu "the first of the village", its leading man.^[2][3] Geagea records a further sense, "leader, chief", in a religious text.^[8] Cunia gives the phrase protlu somnu, the first sleep, for deep sleep like a dead man's.^[1] The adverb prota means "first, at first", and with di "from the beginning".^[2][6][12]

Timeline

• 1770 – Πρώτου “first” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[5]
• 1894 – prot “first” and prota “earlier, at first” in Weigand's glossary.^[12]
• 1901 – prótu-ă “first, foremost” and prota in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[3][6]
• 1932 – Geagea lists it among the Greek elements.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. First in order.^[1][2][13]
2. Foremost, leading.^[2][3]
3. (as a noun) A leader, chief.^[8]

Adverb

1. (prota) First, at first.^[2][12] Di prota: from the beginning.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 858
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1018
3. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 426
4. ^ Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 452
5. ^ a b c Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 101
6. ^ a b c d e Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 425
7. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 80
8. ^ a b c d Geagea, Christea (1932), Elementul grec în dialectul aromân, Cernăuți: Institutul de Arte Grafice și Editură Glasul Bucovinei (offprint from Codrul Cosminului VII, pp. 205–431), p. 397
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 2, 609–610
12. ^ a b c Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 326
13. ^ Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 176