auctionor

Forms

auctiōnor (present infinitive auctiōnārī, perfect active auctiōnātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin auctiō (“public sale, auction”) + -or, a deponent verb.^[2][3][4] De Vaan lists auctiō among the derivatives of augeō (“to increase”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *augeje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eug- (“to grow”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's speech for Quinctius,^[3] where a man is said to have held an auction in Gaul.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Its classical sense is intransitive, to put goods up for public sale or hold an auction:^[2][6] Cicero pictures Rullus holding an auction with the spear set up, and wants auctions held in auction halls rather than at crossroads.^[6][8] Caesar uses it of the difficulties of holding sales.^[6][9] A gloss explains it as selling publicly.^[3]

Late writers used it transitively: Orosius of selling at auction, Ambrose of raising the price as a seller does,^[7][9] and pseudo-Asconius of buying at auction.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of holding an auction in Gaul.^[6][10]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the difficulties of selling.^[6][10]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of raising the price.^[9][10]
• 417/418 AD – Orosius uses it of selling at auction.^[9][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put goods up for public sale, hold an auction.^[2][6]
2. (Late Latin) To sell at auction; to raise the price of.^[7][9]
3. (Late Latin) To buy at auction.^[7]

Related words

• auctiō
• augeō
• auctor

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de