LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

óbviam

óbviam

in the path of, facing up

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Where it lives

What it meant

1. obviam — de Vaan

obviam 'in the path of, facing up' (Naev.+), obvius 'in the path of, confronting' (?\m+\pervivs 'passable' (P1.+), proevius 'leading the way' (PL+); viocurus 'who has charge of roads' (Varro+); veia 'plaustrum' in Oscan (Paul, ex F.)y veiar(i)i 'stipites in plaustro', veiatura 'vectura' (ibidem). Pit. *wija- 'road'. It. cognates: Ο. νίύ, viu [nom.sg.], viam, via [acc.sg.], viai [loc.sg.], viass [acc.pl.], U. via, … — [de Vaan, s.v. obviam, p. 687]

2. ob-vĭam — Lewis & Short

ob-vĭam (also written separate, ob vĭam; cf. Corss. Ausspr. I. 495, 769), adv.

I Lit., in the way; hence, with verbs of motion (in a good or bad sense), towards, against, to meet: ob Trojam duxit exercitum pro ad, similiterque vadimonium obisse, id est ad vadimonium isse, et obviam ad viam, Paul. ex Fest. p. 147 Müll.: morti occumbant obviam, Enn. ap. Serv. ad Verg. A. 2, 62 (Ann. v. 176 Vahl.): nec quisquam tam audax fuat homo, qui obviam obsistat mihi, as to put himself in my way, Plaut. Am. 3, 4, 2: cum in Cumanum mihi obviam venisti, Cic. Fam. 2, 16, 3: prodire, id. ib. 3, 7, 4; cf.: si quā ex parte obviam contra veniretur, an advance or attack should be made, Caes. B. G. 7, 28: alicui obviam advenire, C. Gracch. ap. Gell. 10, 3, 5: quem quaero, optime ecce obviam mihi est, is coming to meet me, Plaut. Bacch. 4, 4, 16: fit obviam Clodio ante fundum ejus, meets, Cic. Mil. 10, 29: obviam ire alicui, to go to meet, id. Mur. 32, 67 et saep.: obviam procedere alicui, to go to meet, id. Phil. 2, 32, 78: prodire alicui, id. ib. 2, 24, 58: properare, id. Fam. 14, 5, 2: proficisci, Caes. B. G. 7, 12: exire, id. B. C. 1, 18: progredi, Liv. 7, 10: mittere, to send to meet, Cic. Fam. 3, 7, 4: se offerre, to go to meet, to meet, Ter. Ad. 3, 2, 24: effundi, to pour out to meet, to go in great numbers to meet, Liv. 5, 23: de obviam itione ita faciam, Cic. Att. 11, 16, 1; late Lat., also, in obviam: ecce exercitus in obviam illis, Vulg. 1 Macc. 16, 5.—
II Trop., at hand, within reach: nec sycophantiis, nec fucis ullum mantellum obviam est, Plaut. Capt. 3, 3, 6: in comitio estote obviam, id. Poen. 3, 6, 12: tibi nulla aegritudo est animo obviam, id. Stich. 4, 1, 16: amanti mihi tot obviam eveniunt morae, present themselves, interpose, id. Cas. 3, 4, 28: ire periculis, to meet courageously, to encounter them, Sall. J. 7, 4: cupiditati hominum obviam ire, to resist, oppose, Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 4, § 106; so, ire superbiae nobilitatis, Sall. J. 5, 1: ire sceleri, id. ib. 22, 3: ire injuriae, id. ib. 14, 25: ire irae, Liv. 9, 14: ire fraudibus, Tac. A. 6, 16: crimini, Liv. 9, 26.—Also, in a good sense, to meet an evil, i. e. to remedy, prevent it: ni Caesar obviam isset, tribuendo pecunias pro modo detrimenti, Tac. A. 4, 64: infecunditati terrarum, id. ib. 4, 6: timori, id. H. 4, 46: dedecori, id. A. 13, 5.

In the wild

6 of 8 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. obviam (scan pp. 687-688; entry #1974). Root candidates: *wija-, *aw-, *ueib-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.