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altor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word altor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC Cicero, De natura deorum More words from the 1st century BC
Ultimate origin
Latin alō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin alō
Latin altor
From the same root
Latin adolēscō ← alō
Latin alēscō ← alō
Latin alimentum ← alō
Latin alimōnia ← alō
Latin alimōnium ← alō
Latin altrix ← alō

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈaɫ.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈal.tor][1]

Forms

altor m (genitive altōris, feminine altrīx); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is an agent noun formed from Latin alō (“to nourish”) + -tor.[2][3] Alō goes back to Proto-Italic *ale/o- (“to feed”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-e/o-;[4] its past participle altum reflects *h₂l-to-.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it in De natura deorum, calling the world the educator and altor (sustainer) of everything nature governs.[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides a sustainer in general, it meant a foster-father, someone who rears another person's child:[2][5] Sallust wrote of the Cretans honouring the altores of Jupiter, and Ovid, Seneca, Tacitus and Statius used it of foster-fathers.[3][5] Varro, as reported by Augustine, named Altor among the gods to whom the pontiffs sacrificed along with Tellus.[3][5] The feminine is altrix.[1] Late glosses explain it with nutritor and educator.[3] Italian has it as the learned borrowing Italian altore.[1]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero calls the world the sustainer of all things.[2][6]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust writes of the Cretans honouring Jupiter's foster-fathers.[3][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a foster-father in the Metamorphoses.[5][6]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine reports Varro's list of gods that includes Altor.[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who rears another's child, a foster-father.[2][5]
  2. A nourisher, sustainer.[2][5]
  3. (capitalised) A god of nourishment, named by Varro.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Altor.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/altor. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·