praetor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pretor, also pretour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pretour, also pretore,^[5][6] and Middle French preteur,^[5] and directly borrowed from Latin praetor (“leader, commander, magistrate”).^[5][7][3] The modern spelling restores the Latin one.^[8] The Anglo-Norman noun, recorded from about 1334, meant a governor or leader,^[6] and Old French pretor is recorded in 1213.^[5] The OED takes the Latin word as literally "person who goes before", from praeeō (“to go before”), from prae (“before”) and eō (“to go”), with the agent suffix -tor.^[5] Skeat, Weekley and Barnhart reconstruct an earlier *praeitor,^[9][8][10] and Etymonline traces its parts to Proto-Indo-European *per- (“forward”) and *ei- (“to go”).^[7] Other dictionaries hedge this analysis with "perhaps" or "probably",^{[4][11][12][3]} and Barnhart reports the suggestion of Ernout and Meillet that the word may be a loan from Etruscan altered by folk etymology.^[10] Old English has one isolated pretorium, for the Latin word, in the translation of Orosius.^[5] Compare Spanish pretor, Portuguese pretor and Italian pretore.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A magistrate of ancient Rome: before 1439, in J. Lydgate's Fall of Princes, "To been a pretour, an offise of estat".^[5][2] Barnhart finds the form pretor earlier, probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[10] and Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the title first belonged, according to Barnhart and Etymonline, to a consul as leader of an army,^[10][7] and the Shorter Oxford records that use in English too.^[11] It settled on the annually elected magistrates subordinate to the consuls, with duties in justice and in the government of the provinces.^[5][4][11] Lydgate also applied it to a holder of high civic office, such as a mayor or chief magistrate, often as a title,^[5][2] a use now rare.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary also records it as a surname.^[2] The adjective praetorian followed, of a soldier or bodyguard of a Roman commander or emperor;^[10] Weekley explains the Pretorian guard as originally the cohort attached to the praetor as a military commander.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1439 – a Roman magistrate subordinate to the consuls.^[5][2] Barnhart has the form pretor probably before 1425.^[10]
• before 1439 – a holder of high civic office, a mayor or chief magistrate.^[5][2]
• mid 16th century – the derivative praetorship, the office or its term.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Roman history) In ancient Rome, an annually elected magistrate ranking just below a consul.^{[13][4][3][5]}
2. (Roman history) A consul as leader of the army, before that magistracy developed.^[11]
3. (rare) A person holding high civic office, such as a mayor or chief magistrate.^[11][5]

Word family

• praetorial
• praetorship

Related words

• praetorian
• propraetor
• praetorium
• exit

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins