captor

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin captor (“a catcher”),^[2][3][4][5] an agent noun from captus, the past participle of capiō (“to take, seize”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).^[2][6] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged specify a Late Latin noun meaning a hunter or catcher of animals.^[6][7] Compare French capteur.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A censor: 1646, in J. Row's Historie of the Kirk of Scotland, a Scottish use now obsolete.^[4][2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the word to the mid-16th century,^[8][9] and Dictionary.com to 1640–50.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The sense now usual first appears in 1688, in G. Miege's Great French Dictionary, for one who takes a prisoner or a prize by force.^[4][7][2] In the 18th century it was used especially of one who made a capture at sea,^[4] and Johnson (1755) likewise defined it as "he that takes a prisoner, or a prize".^[11] Etymonline records a feminine form, captress, from 1867.^[2]

Timeline

• 1646 – in Scotland, a censor (now obsolete).^[4][2]
• 1688 – one who takes a prisoner or a prize by force.^[4][7][2]
• 1867 – the feminine form captress.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or animal that has captured another or holds another captive: The prisoner slipped away from his captors during the storm.^{[12][7][6][4]}
2. One who takes a ship or other prize, especially at sea.^[4][11]

Related words

• capture
• captive
• caption

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins