pretor

Forms

pretor m (plural pretores)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praetor (“leader; praetor”).^[2][3][1] Corominas dates it to about 1580, in Ambrosio de Morales, but the history of Spain written for Alfonso X already has it.^[4][5][6]

The Latin noun is formed from praeeō (“to go before, lead”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[7][1] Wiktionary gives the earlier form as *praiitōr, and the OLD notes the inscriptional spelling with ⟨ai⟩.^[1][7] That verb is prae- (“before”) added to eō (“to go”), the verb behind ir.^[1][3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese pretor, Catalan pretor, French préteur and Italian pretore.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–1284, in a late 13th-century manuscript) uses it for the Roman magistrates: a man rose to be adelantado de los pretores, the leader of the praetors.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In the translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1399) and in López de Ayala's Livy (c. 1400) the word belongs to the narrative of Roman history.^[6][12] Autoridades quoted Ambrosio de Morales on the city praetors and the praetors for foreigners.^[13] Terreros explained that the word first meant any magistrate and then the commanders of the army, before it was limited to the judge in Rome.^[11] The DLE keeps only the Roman magistrate, while Wiktionary also has a modern sense, a magistrate.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España speaks of los pretores.^[5][6]
• 1376–1396 – Heredia's Orosius has Gayo Seucio pretor.^[6]
• c. 1580 – Ambrosio de Morales, the first record for Corominas.^[4][3]
• 1737 – Autoridades defines the Roman magistrate.^[13]
• 1793 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin praetor.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A praetor, a Roman magistrate ranking below the consul, with jurisdiction in Rome or in the provinces.^[2][16][1]
2. (law) A magistrate.^[1]

Word family

• pretorial
• pretoriano
• pretorio
• pretura

Related words

• ir
• pretérito
• Latin praetor

Usage notes

A different word spelt pretor, from prieto “black”, names the darkness of the water where tunas gather, in tuna fishing.^[2][17][15] Autoridades already marked it as out of use and quoted Medina's Grandezas on a lookout who sees the tunas a league away by the aguage y pretor que trahen.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pretor
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pretor
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 467
5. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. pretor
6. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pretor
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. praetor
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2707
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. pretor
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. préteur
11. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 208
12. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. pretor
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 372
14. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. pretor
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 863
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pretor
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pretor