ascriptor

Forms

āscrīptor m (genitive āscrīptōris); third declension^[1] It is also spelled adscrīptor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin āscrībō (“to add in writing, enrol”) + -tor,^[2][4][5] and that verb is a compound of ad- (“to”) and scrībō (“to write”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[5] who in a speech on the agrarian law says that someone will surely not reject his colleagues as āscrīptōrēs of the law, men who put their names to it.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short know it perhaps only from Cicero:^[3] besides the agrarian speech, he uses it in the speeches after his return from exile, of Quintus Metellus as sponsor and supporter of his recall, and in the De domo sua he speaks of someone as “your venal supporter and co-signer”.^[4][3] An inscription from a columbarium in Rome also has the word.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the supporters of a law.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who adds his name to a document to approve it; a supporter, seconder, co-signer.^[2][3][7]

Related words

• scrībō

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.