Etymologically
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amator

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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

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