adulator

Forms

adūlātor m (genitive adūlātōris); third declension^[1] Sometimes written adolātor.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin adūlor (“to fawn upon, flatter”) + -tor.^[3][1][2] The origin of the verb is uncertain.^[4] It has been compared with Lithuanian valaĩ (“horse's tail”) and Sanskrit वाल (vālá-, “tail-hair”), but de Vaan notes that these continue a root that would not give Latin /ū/, and has himself proposed a link with aveō (“to be eager”) and avidus (“eager”), through a lost adjective meaning “eager towards something”, “flatterer”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Georges record it first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium,^[5][6] where the speaker says nolo esse laudator, ne videar adulator, “I do not want to be a praiser, lest I seem a flatterer”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It always meant a servile flatterer or sycophant.^[3][7] The elder Seneca reports that Cicero was criticised as no sure friend of either Pompey or Caesar but a flatterer of both,^[2][8] and his son warns against offering one's side to flatterers.^[2] Quintilian names flatterers, beside prostitutes and corrupters, among others who also persuade by speaking, and speaks of flatterers of present power.^[2] Suetonius has the emperor's flatterers and detractors.^[7][2]

In Late Latin it is frequent in Ammianus, who has adulatorum cohors, a band of flatterers, and flatterers puffing up the emperor Constantius,^[2] and the Historia Augusta uses it as an adjective, adulator populus, adulator senatus.^[6][2] Jerome writes that the flatterer is a charming enemy, adulator … blandus inimicus est.^[2] Conte gives it as the source of Italian adulatore.^[8]

Timeline

• third quarter of the 1st century BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it.^[7][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca warns against flatterers.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian speaks of flatterers of present power.^[7][2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of the emperor's flatterers.^[7][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus speaks of bands of flatterers at court.^[2][5]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome calls the flatterer a charming enemy.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A servile flatterer, a sycophant, an adulator.^[3][7][8]
2. (Late Latin, as an adjective) Flattering, fawning.^[6]

Related words

• adūlor
• adūlātiō
• English adulator

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier