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attestor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word attestor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
116–27 BC, Varro
Ultimate origin
Latin testor
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin testor
Latin attestor
From the same root
Latin detestor ← testor
Latin intestabilis ← testor
Latin testamentum ← testor
Latin testatus ← testor

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [atˈtɛs.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [atˈtɛs.tor][1]

Forms

attestor (present infinitive attestārī, perfect active attestātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] It is also spelled adtestor.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + testor (“to bear witness”).[2][3][1] The simple verb is made from testis (“witness”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *trito-sth₂-o- (“third standing by”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Varro, in a fragment quoted by Nonius: Fortune afterwards bore witness that the thing was true.[3][5] Lewis & Short call it very rare before the Augustan age and reject a reading in Cicero.[6]

Semantic evolution

Phaedrus introduces a fable with it (hoc adtestātur brevis Aesōpī fābula, “a short fable of Aesop bears this out”), and Pliny the Elder and Gellius use it of people who affirm something, Gellius of Cato.[3][6] The TLL finds it more often in Christian writers: Tertullian, Ambrosiaster and Augustine, who uses it of a psalm or a story bearing witness.[3] From late antiquity it is also used in the passive, “to be attested”, as in the Code of Justinian.[3]

In Medieval Latin it was used in law and theology for giving evidence, agreeing, and assuring.[7] English attest, first recorded in the 1590s, comes from French attester, which goes back to it.[8]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of Fortune bearing witness.[3][5]
  • c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of a fable.[3][6][5]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of Cato.[3][5]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it often.[3][5]
  • 1590s – English attest is taken from French.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bear witness to, attest, confirm.[2][6][3][1]
  2. (Late Latin, passive) To be attested.[3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) To give evidence; to assert, assure.[7]

Word family

  • attestātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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
Cite this entry

“Attestor.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/attestor. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·