pridem

Latin

Etymology

From unattested *prīs, zero grade of prius (compare magis, and maius) and -dem. The same adverb *prīs is also found in prīstinus and prīscus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpriː.dem/, [ˈpriːd̪ɛ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpri.dem/, [ˈpriːd̪em]

Adverb

prīdem (not comparable)

1. long ago, long since
   • c. 180 BCE, Plautus, Casina 283:

     probum tē et frūgi hominem jam prīdem esse arbitror.

   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 303:

     jam prīdem vidētur factum, heri quod hominēs quattuor
     in sopōrem collocāstis nūdōs.

   • 46 BCE, Cicero, Brutus 41:

     fuit enim rēgnante jam Graeciā, nostrā autem cīvitāte nōn ita prīdem dominātū rēgiō līberātā.

   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 5.330:

     vērum, ut opīnor, habet novitātem summa recensque
     nātūra est mundī neque prīdem exōrdia cēpit.

2. previously, formerly

Usage notes

• Often used together with jam

References

• “pridem”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pridem”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pridem in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • those ideas have long ago been given up: illae sententiae iam pridem explosae et eiectae sunt (Fin. 5. 8. 23)
    
• Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1954) “prīdem”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 361
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “prior”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 489