amator

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [aˈmaː.tɔr]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [aˈmaː.tor]^[1]

Forms

amātor m (genitive amātōris, feminine amātrīx); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin amō (“to love”) + -tor, an agent noun.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, in the Pseudolus, has a lover mocked as empty as a hollow nut.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus about 250–184 BC.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant a lover in the sexual sense, sometimes of illicit love, as of Jupiter in Plautus' Amphitryon.^[2][4] It also meant a devoted friend, as in Lucilius and Cicero, and an enthusiastic admirer of a person or thing, of the city or the country in Horace, of wisdom or peace in Cicero.^[2][5] Cicero says Cato lacks amatores, meaning readers.^[5] Döderlein notes that amans and amator express a warmer affection than amicus but imply no return of it.^[6]

In Christian and medieval Latin it was used of spiritual love, of a loyal follower, and as an epithet of saints.^[7][3] French amateur comes from it, and English took amateur from French in 1784, of one who has a taste for an art without practising it.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a lover.^[2][3]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a devoted friend.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of friends and of admirers of wisdom.^[2][5][3]
• 1784 – English amateur is borrowed from its French descendant.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lover, admirer; a paramour.^[2][1]
2. A devoted friend.^[2][1]
3. An enthusiastic admirer, a devotee.^[2]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A lover in a spiritual sense; a follower.^[7][1]

Word family

• amatorculus
• amātōrius

Related words

• English amateur

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes amicus, a calm and mutual affection, from amans and amator, a warmer feeling that need not be returned, amans denoting a passing state.^[6]

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 h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com