procuratour

Forms

procuratour m (oblique plural procuratours; nominative singular procuratours)^[1]

• procurator, procuratur, procurateur, procuratore, procuretur, prokeratour^[1][2][3]

The continental procurateur, with the suffix -eur, is recorded from 1317.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin prōcūrātor (“manager, agent, proxy”).^[1][5][6] The Latin noun is formed prōcūrō (“to manage, administer”) + -tor,^[1][7] and named the governor or administrator of a province, the official in charge of the imperial revenues and an advocate.^[4] In Medieval Latin it was a fiscal or manorial officer, a steward, an attorney, a regent and a university proctor.^[8]

Beside it Old French had procureor, which Wiktionary derives from the verb procurer with the suffix -eor;^[1] the FEW treats both under the Latin noun.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The FEW dates the first record, Anglo-Norman, to 1180, in the sense “one who has power to act for another, above all in court”;^[10][6][4] Bloch and Wartburg and the DHLF also give about 1180.^[10][6][4] The TLFi's first record, with the same sense, is from the Assises et arrêts de l'Échiquier de Normandie, about 1207.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word named an agent or proxy, an attorney, and in religious houses the brother who provided for the community: the Vie de saint Évroul calls the saint a tres diligens procuratours, a very careful provider.^[3][2] Greimas places that life in the 12th century, but the DEAF dates it to the middle of the 14th.^[11][12] In verse it could mean an advocate or intercessor, and Rome's governors of provinces are procurateurs in Middle French translations.^[13][14]

The legal sense lived until the end of the 16th century and was revived in 1800 without much use; modern French procurateur is chiefly a historical term, for Venetian magistrates from 1680 and Roman governors from 1765.^[5][4] The everyday word for an attorney became French procureur.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1180 – first record, Anglo-Norman.^[10][6]
• c. 1207 – in the Assises et arrêts de l'Échiquier de Normandie.^[5]
• 1212 – procurator in Angier's Anglo-Norman translation of Gregory's Dialogues.^[2][15]
• c. 1307 – procurateur “champion” of the Church in La branche des royaus lignages.^[13][16]
• 1317 – procurateur in a judgment of 1317.^[4][3]
• mid-14th century – procuratours, provider of a monastery, in the Vie de saint Évroul.^[3][12]
• 1680 – modern procurateur, a Venetian magistrate.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. an agent, proxy, one who acts on behalf of another, especially at law; an attorney.^[2][10][14]
2. an advocate, intercessor.^[13]
3. the manager or provider of a religious house.^[2][3][11]
4. a procurator, governor of a Roman province; a tax collector.^[2][14][1]
5. (Anglo-Norman) a university proctor.^[2]
6. (Anglo-Norman) a procurer, one who has something done maliciously or unlawfully.^[2]
7. (Anglo-Norman) a chief prosecuting attorney.^[2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word procuratour, first cites it from 1212, and lists the spellings procurateur, procurator, procuratore, procuratur, procuretur and prokeratour; in England it also named a university proctor, an instigator of a crime and a chief prosecuting attorney.^[2] The AND keeps the related procurur, recorded from 1260, as a separate word.^[17] Middle English procuratour, “steward or manager of a household”, recorded from about 1300, comes from the French word and directly from Latin, and gave procurator.^[18]

Word family

• procurateure
• procurateresse

Descendants

• Middle French procurateur (→ French procurateur)^[14][5]
• Middle English procuratour (borrowed; → English procurator)^[18]

Related words

• procureor
• procurer

Usage notes

The dictionaries head the word differently: Wiktionary and the AND under the insular procuratour,^[1][2] Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DEAF and Greimas under procurator,^[13][19][11] and Godefroy and the DMF under procurateur.^[3][14] The feminines procurateure and procurateresse are Middle French.^[3][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. procuratour
3. ^ a b c d e f g Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 6:421
4. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. procurateur
5. ^ a b c d e f Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 552
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōcūrātor
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. procurator
9. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9:415
10. ^ a b c d e Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9:416
11. ^ a b c Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. procurator
12. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. SEvroulS
13. ^ a b c d Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1942
14. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. procurateur
15. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. AngDialGregO2
16. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. GGuiB
17. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. procurur
18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. procurator
20. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. procurateresse