praeda

Latin

Alternative forms

• praida (Republican)
• preda (codices, Medieval Latin, rare)
• proeda (Medieval Latin)

Etymology

Likely from the o-grade Proto-Italic *praiɣodā, from (with the prefix *prai-) Proto-Indo-European *gʰed-, whence also the second element in prehendō and probably also hedera.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈprae̯.da/, [ˈpräe̯d̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpre.da/, [ˈprɛːd̪ä]

Noun

praeda f (genitive praedae); first declension

1. plunder, booty, pillage, spoils of war, property taken in war

   Synonyms: spolium, manubia, rapīna

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.527–528:

     “Nōn nōs aut ferrō Libycōs populāre Penātīs
     vēnimus, aut raptās ad lītora vertere praedās.”

     “We come neither to pillage by sword the household gods of Libya, nor to drive captured plunder to the shores.”
     (The plunder “driven” or “turned” implies taking herds of animals; it might also mean taking humans into slavery.)

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 1.685–686:

     Vōs quoque, formīcae, subiectīs parcite grānīs:
     post messem praedae cōpia maior erit.

     And you too, ants, act sparingly once the seed has been sown:
     after harvest there will be a greater abundance of plunder.

2. prey, game taken in the hunt
3. gain, profit

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	praeda	praedae
Genitive	praedae	praedārum
Dative	praedae	praedīs
Accusative	praedam	praedās
Ablative	praedā	praedīs
Vocative	praeda	praedae

Derived terms

• praedor

Descendants

• → Albanian: pre
• → Coptic: ⲫⲣⲉⲧⲁ (phreta)
• Aromanian: pradã
• Friulian: prede
• Galician: prea
• Middle Irish: preid, preit
  • Scottish Gaelic: sprédh, spré
    • Scots: spreath
      • → English: spreath, →? spree
• Italian: preda
• Occitan: preda
• Old French: preie, proie
  • → Dutch: prooi
  • → Middle English: preye, prei, preyȝe
    • English: prey
  • French: proie
• Portuguese: preia
• Romanian: pradă
• Sicilian: preda, preja
• Spanish: prea, preda

References

• “praeda” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present

Further reading

• “praeda”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “praeda”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• praeda in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• praeda in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to carry off booty: ferre atque agere praedam
    
• “praeda”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “praeda”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin