-or

Forms

-or m (genitive -ōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The suffix is inherited from Proto-Italic *-ōs, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *-ōs,^[1] the nominative singular of masculine and feminine s-stems, from earlier *-oss with the nominative ending *-s.^[1][2] Such nouns are rare in Indo-Iranian and Greek but abundant in Latin.^[2] Weiss regards them as originally internal derivatives of the neuter s-stems.^[3]

The older nominative was -ōs, genitive -ōris.^[4][3] In the post-Plautine period the /r/ of the other cases spread to the nominative and the long vowel shortened before it, which gave the classical -or.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus already has dolor, timor and rubor.^[4] Ennius still has the nominative ⟨clāmōs⟩ for clāmor.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The nouns are verbal abstracts, especially beside verbs of the second conjugation,^[3] and form sets with adjectives in -idus: timor, timidus and timeō; candor and candidus.^[3][2] Untermann, cited by Weiss, finds that most words in -or recorded up to Cicero denote sensations that affect a person for a time.^[3] A table in Weiss, based on Quellet, counts about 120 of them.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses dolor, timor, rubor and amor.^[4][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius has the nominative ⟨clāmōs⟩.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses candor of the brightness of the sky.^[4][5]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forms masculine abstract nouns, mainly beside verbs in -eō and adjectives in -idus: candor, rubor.^[4][1]
2. Forms such nouns from other stems: amor, clāmor, furor².^[4]

Word family

• candor
• rubor
• amor
• clāmor
• furor²
• dolor
• timor
• calor
• honor

Related words

• Italian -ore
• French -eur
• Spanish -or

Usage notes

It is not the agent suffix -tor, though both end in -or, -ōris: that one continues an r-stem and this one an s-stem.^[2] The only feminine of the type is arbor, with nominative ⟨arbōs⟩ and a short stem vowel.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York: OUP
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Weiss, Michael (2020), Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, 2nd ed., Ann Arbor: Beech Stave
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de