arbitrator

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English arbitratour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French arbitratour, also arbitrateur,^[5][4] and directly borrowed from Late Latin arbitrātor (“a spectator, hearer, witness; a judge”).^[6][7][8] The dictionaries differ over the immediate source: the OED and Barnhart name Old French, Etymonline, the MED and the Shorter Oxford name Latin, and Merriam-Webster gives a route through Middle French.^{[5][4][6][2][7][3]} Anglo-Norman arbitratour is recorded from 1313–14.^[9] The Latin word is an agent noun from the past participle of arbitror (“to be of an opinion, give a decision”),^[6][3][10] from arbiter (“a judge, umpire, mediator”).^[6][5] Etymonline and, more doubtfully, the OED take that noun from ad (“to”) and a verb baetō (“to go”), so that it first meant one who goes somewhere to see or to witness.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person chosen by the parties in a dispute to settle it: 1426–7, in W. Paston, in the Paston Letters,^[5][2][4] with the phrase "the seyd arbitratores".^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old French jurists adopted the form in -ateur as a technical term beside the older arbitreor, and in English arbitrour seems to have come first, then arbitratour.^[5] From 1579, in Fenton's translation of Guicciardini, the word also meant one who decides by his own absolute pleasure, the same as arbiter.^[5] Shakespeare used it in Troilus and Cressida of something that brings an affair to its end, a use the OED records only from 1609 to 1616.^[5] Johnson (1755) quotes that line, "that old common arbitrator, time", in his fourth sense, after a judge chosen by mutual consent, a governour, and one who acts by his own choice without limit.^[11]

Timeline

• 1426–7 – one chosen by the parties in a dispute to decide it.^[5][2][4]
• 1579 – one who decides by his or her own absolute pleasure.^[5]
• 1609 – figuratively, that which brings about a definite issue (obsolete by 1616).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person chosen by the two sides in a dispute to hear it and settle it: The union and the company agreed to accept the arbitrator's ruling.^[3][5][7]
2. One with absolute power of deciding; an arbiter.^[3][5]
3. (obsolete, 1609–1616) That which brings an affair to its end.^[5][11]

Related words

• arbitrate
• arbitration
• arbiter
• arbitrary

Usage notes

Etymonline calls arbitrator the legal form of the popular arbiter: in modern use an arbiter decides of his own accord and answers to no one, while an arbitrator decides issues that the parties refer to him.^[6] Merriam-Webster distinguishes it from a mediator.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.