protervus

Latin

Alternative forms

proptervus, protervos

Etymology

Unclear.^[1] Based on manuscript variants starting with propt-, it has been proposed to derive from an original *pro-petes-wo- (from the root of petō) with a change of /sw/ to /rw/ as in Minerva.^[2] Donatus interpreted it as a derivative of prōterō +‎ -vus.^[3]

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /proˈter.u̯us/, [prɔˈt̪ɛru̯ʊs̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /proˈter.vus/, [proˈt̪ɛrvus]
The first syllable scans short in Classical Latin, but scans long in some cases in certain preclassical authors such as Plautus and Terence.

Adjective

protervus (feminine proterva, neuter protervum, comparative protervior); first/second-declension adjective

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	masculine	feminine	neuter	masculine	feminine	neuter
	singular			plural
nominative	protervus	proterva	protervum	protervī	protervae	proterva
genitive	protervī	protervae	protervī	protervōrum	protervārum	protervōrum
dative	protervō	protervae	protervō	protervīs
accusative	protervum	protervam	protervum	protervōs	protervās	proterva
ablative	protervō	protervā	protervō	protervīs
vocative	proterve	proterva	protervum	protervī	protervae	proterva

Derived terms

proterviō

Descendants

Italian: protervo
Portuguese: protervo

References

^ Pultrová, Lucie (2022) The Category of Comparison in Latin, page 94
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “protervus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 494
^ “protervus” in volume 10, part 2, column 2273, line 42 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present