accusatorius

Forms

accūsātōrius (feminine accūsātōria, neuter accūsātōrium, adverb accūsātōriē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin accūsō (“to accuse”) + -tōrius,^[2] the adjective belonging to accūsātor (“accuser”).^[1][3] accūsō is a compound of ad (“to”) and causa (“cause, lawsuit”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Cicero, in the speech for Sextus Roscius, of the craft of a professional prosecutor.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it often: of the prosecutor's right and custom, a prosecutor's spirit, a law on prosecutions and the usual methods of accusers, which he declines to use.^[2][5][3] Livy speaks of an accuser's voice and spirit, Seneca the Elder of an accuser's pugnacity and Quintilian of an accuser's life.^[5][3][6] In the Digest, Ulpian uses libellī accūsātōriī of written charges.^[2][5] Augustine contrasts an accusing word with a pleading one.^[6] The adverb accūsātōriē, “in the manner of an accuser”, is found in Cicero and Livy.^[5][3]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant accusatory, of an accusation.^[7] English borrowed it around 1600 as accusatory.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a prosecutor's craft and methods.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of an accuser's voice.^[5][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian speaks of an accuser's life.^[5][4]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of written charges.^[2][4]
• c. 1600 – English borrows it as accusatory.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a public or professional prosecutor.^[2][5]
2. Like a prosecutor's, denunciatory.^[2][3]
3. Of or connected with prosecutions.^[2]
4. Containing an accusation, accusatory.^[2][7]

Related words

• English accusatory

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com