Meanings
- not comparableTo that extent.
If 'making explicit' conveys this, then pro tanto it is a bad term.
1962, J. L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words, OUP paperback edition edition, page 691 more example
Their vain fears only substitute other and worse evils for those which they are idly apprehensive of: while every restraint on the freedom of conduct of any of their human fellow creatures, (otherwise than by making them responsible for any evil actually caused by it), dries up pro tanto the principal fountain of human happiness, and leaves the species less rich, to an inappreciable degree, in all that makes life valuable to the individual human being.
1870, John Stuart Mill, chapter IV, in The Subjection of Women, 3rd edition, Random House, published 2002, →ISBN, page 229
Origin
- Latinprō tantō“so great/much”
- Englishpro tanto
From Latin prō tantō (“so great/much”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pro tanto. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pro%20tanto
“pro tanto.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pro%20tanto. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pro tanto,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pro%20tanto.
Source: pro tanto on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.