prōsāpia
Meaning
- archaicstock, race, family, lineage
Choosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms
Stirps · Genus · Gens · Prosapia · Posteritas · Progenies · Proles · Suboles
1. Stirps, genus, and gens, denote the race usually in an ascending line, as abstract and collective terms, for majores; whereas prosapia, progenies, propago, proles, suboles, in a descending line, as abstract and collective terms for posteri. 2. Prosapia is an antiquated solemn expression, and only to be used of ancient noble families, Cic. Univ. 11. Quintil. i. 6, 40; posteritas, the usual prosaic, progenies, a select, elevated expression, Cic. Rep. ii. 22; proles and suboles, poetical expressions, Cic. Or. iii. 38; proles denotes children, as fruits destined, as a younger race, to exist with their parents; suboles, as an after-growth, destined to supply the place of the generation that is dying off. 3. Gens (γενετή) is a political, genus (γένος), a natural race. Gens consists of families, whom the founder of states has united into a community or complex family; genus consists of species and individuals, that by their common properties belong to one and the same class of beings. (v. 307).
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | prōsāpia | prōsāpiae |
| genitive | prōsāpiae | prōsāpiārum |
| dative | prōsāpiae | prōsāpiīs |
| accusative | prōsāpiam | prōsāpiās |
| ablative | prōsāpiā | prōsāpiīs |
| vocative | prōsāpia | prōsāpiae |
de Coclitum prosapiā esse, Plaut. Curc. 3, 23: rogitares, unde esset, quā prosapiā, id. Merc. 3, 4, 49: homo veteris prosapiae, Sall. J. 85, 10; so, vetus, Just. 14, 6, 11; Suet. Galb. 2: et eorum, ut utamur veteri verbo, prosapiam, Cic. Univ. 11; cf.: nec utique ab ultimis et jam oblitteratis repetita (verba) temporibus, qualia sunt... prosapia, Quint. 1, 6, 40: insulsum (verbum), id. 8, 3, 26. Galba magnā et vetere prosapiā, Suet. Galb. 2: pro gloriā veteris prosapiae, Just. 14, 6, 11; Prud. Apoth. 1006.—Form prosapies: tot stuprorum sordidam prosapiem, Prud. στεφ. 10, 180; Cassiod. Var 9, 25: prosapies, γένους καταγωγή, Gloss. Philox.Charlton Lewis's shorter dictionary for students: the same scholarship in plain, modern definitions.
Origins
From prō- + an unknown element. Nikolaev derives the second element from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂p- (“to strike”) and connects the word to Latin sōpiō (“drawing of a penis”), Sanskrit सापयति (sāpáyati, “to strike”), Hittite [Term?] (/šapp-/, “to hit”), Ossetian сафын (safyn), исафун (isafun, “to destroy”), Ancient Greek ἰάπτω (iáptō, “to hurt”) and Lithuanian sopė́ti (“to hurt”). The semantic development of the word would be “to strike” > “to have sexual intercourse” > “to beget”, at which point the word was prefixed.