aleator

Forms

āleātor m (genitive āleātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ālea (“game of dice, gambling”) + -tor,^[1][2] or, as the OLD puts it, from a verb ⟨*āleō⟩ formed from that noun.^[3] De Vaan finds no known etymology for ālea: he dismisses a loan from Ancient Greek ἠλεός (ēleós, “distraught, crazed”) and mentions, as speculation, a derivation from āla (“wing, armpit”), since knucklebones were used as dice.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation is in Plautus, in an appeal to Neptune: nec tē āleātor nūllus est sapientior, “no gambler is cleverer than you”.^[2][5] Köbler dates it only from Cicero.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a dice player or gambler,^[3][7] a disreputable figure in Cicero's time, known for his tricks:^[5] Cicero uses it in the Catilinarians and the Philippics and speaks of a gambler's camp, āleātōris castra, in the Verrines.^[7][8] Publilius Syrus, Quintilian, Martial and the jurists use it too,^[5][8][7] and Ambrose writes of the gatherings of gamblers.^[5] In Britain Old English glossaries translate it with the word for a player of board games,^[9] and Aldhelm defines it as one who plays with counters and dice.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus calls Neptune cleverer than any gambler.^[2][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the Verrines, the Catilinarians and the Philippics.^[7][8][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it.^[8][6]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose writes of gatherings of gamblers.^[5][6]
• Medieval Latin – Aldhelm defines it as a player with counters and dice.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dice player, gambler, gamester.^[3][7][5]

Word family

• āleātōrius

Related words

• ālea

Usage notes

De Vaan records an older noun āleō “gambler”, used by Naevius.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press