Vorgaine's Historia De Sancto Antonio

[Iacobus de Indianius]

Salvete Omnes,

Just for fun I have been working through Voragine's Historia De Sancto Antonio in the Legendum Aureum. It's not too difficult, but I ran into a word that I cannot find in my Lewis and Short or through searching around the web. I fear I'm making an obvious error. The text of the sentence is below.

Quadem vice dum spiritum fornicationis virtute fidei superasset, diabolus in specie pueri ante eum prostrans apparuit et se ab eo victum confessus est.

I'll hazard a translation so that I'm not breaking any rules here: At a certain time, when he [Antonius] had overcome the spirit of fornication with courage/virtue of spirit, the devil [prostrans goes here] appeared before him in the form of a dark boy, and he [the devil] confessed his way of life to him [Antonius].

This "prostrans" is giving me trouble. I assume it's the present active participle of a verb and means prostrating, but I can't find it anywhere.

Also, I assume that dum is just the normal usage, i.e. while/during -- possibly a "when" here, but does anyone know if it falls in the "provisio clause" category that I saw in my grammar?

Thanks in advance.

[adrianus]

Nonnè est prostans? Alibi "prostratus" pro "prostrans" lego. Ecce in dictionario de Gaffiot: prostro, -are (quarto saeculo AD)
Is it not "prostans"? I see elsewhere "prostratus" for "prostrans". Ah, it's in Gaffiot, prostro, -are, 4th century AD.

[Qimmik]

Dum can mean "while" or "provided that". Here it means just "while".

se ab eo victum confessus est -- "confessed that he (the devil) had been vanquished by him (Antony)."

Not sure where you get "dark."

Prostrans is probably late or medieval Latin for se prosternens, a "back-formation" from the past participle prostratus.

[Iacobus de Indianius]

Dum can mean "while" or "provided that". Here it means just "while".

se ab eo victum confessus est -- "confessed that he (the devil) had been vanquished by him (Antony)."

Not sure where you get "dark."

Prostrans is probably late or medieval Latin for se prosternens, a "back-formation" from the past participle prostratus.

Thanks man, I get it now. Further proof that I have much to learn. As for the "dark," I mistakenly omitted a "nigri" when typing the quote. It goes, "diabolus in specie pueri nigri..." Sorry. I guess at least that wasn't subconscious racism on my part. It did strike me as sort of odd that he would have to be a dark boy when I first read it.

[Iacobus de Indianius]

Nonnè est prostans? Alibi "prostratus" pro "prostrans" lego. Ecce in dictionario de Gaffiot: prostro, -are (quarto saeculo AD)
Is it not "prostans"? I see elsewhere "prostratus" for "prostrans". Ah, it's in Gaffiot, prostro, -are, 4th century AD.

Thanks as well. I suppose I'm not going to be able to solely rely on Lewis and Short, alas. Your responses in Latin are quite impressive.

Edit: I also wish I knew French.

[Qimmik]

The past participle prostratus of classical Latin prosterno was later reinterpreted as the past participle of a new verb prostro, and a new present participle prostrans was formed from that verb.