-tor

Forms

-tor m (genitive -tōris, feminine -trīx); third declension^[1] After verbs with a supine in -sum it appears as -sor.^[2]

Etymology

The suffix is inherited from Proto-Italic *-tōr, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *-tōr, from *-tor-s.^[1] The long vowel of the nominative spread to the other cases, and final -ōr was then shortened, so that Classical Latin has -or only in the nominative singular and -ōr- elsewhere.^[1]

Cognate with Sanskrit -तृ (-tṛ) and Ancient Greek -τωρ (-tōr), beside -τήρ (-tḗr) from another ablaut grade, *-tḗr.^[1] Fortson sets up two agent-noun suffixes in the parent language, one accented on the suffix with the zero grade of the root (*dh₃-tḗr), the other with the accent and full grade on the root (*déh₃-tōr); the second is continued by dator “giver”, with an analogical zero grade.^[3] Sihler derives genitor and γενέτωρ (genétōr) from *ǵenH̥₁-tor-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has amātor in a line of the Truculentus: longe aliter est amicus atque amator, “a friend is something quite different from a lover”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The suffix made agents from verbs, as arātor and genitor, and it also spread to nominal stems, as in āleātor and gladiātor.^[2] Its feminine is -trīx, a k-extended form: victor beside victrīx.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has amātor.^[5][6]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius has genitor “father”.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has arātor “ploughman”.^[2][6]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forms masculine agent nouns from verbs, like English -er: arātor, genitor.^[2][1]
2. As -sor, with verbs whose supine is in -sum: messor, tōnsor.^[2]
3. Also from nominal stems: āleātor, gladiātor.^[2]

Word family

• arātor
• genitor
• messor
• tōnsor
• āleātor
• gladiātor
• amātor
• dator
• scrīptor
• victor
• -trīx

Related words

• English -or

Usage notes

Varro lists ⟨ianitos⟩ for iānitor among old forms with s in place of r (De lingua Latina 7.27), but Weiss calls this a false archaism, since the agent suffix always had r.^[5]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Fortson, Benjamin W., IV (2010), Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, 2nd ed., Malden, MA / Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
4. ^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York: OUP
5. ^ a b c d Weiss, Michael (2020), Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, 2nd ed., Ann Arbor: Beech Stave
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de