balneator

Forms

balneātor m (genitive balneātōris, feminine balneātrīx); third declension^[1] Plautus also has the spelling balineātor.^[2] Georges gives balineator and balnitor as by-forms.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin balneum (“bath”) + -ātor.^[4][1] Its base balneum was taken from Ancient Greek βαλανεῖον (balaneîon, “bath”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus, meaning a bath attendant or bath keeper.^[5][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the one meaning, a man who ran or looked after a bath;^[5] Lewis & Short give the Greek equivalent βαλανεύς (balaneús).^[5] Cicero uses it in the speech for Caelius and in the Philippics,^[3][7] and Pliny the Elder also has it.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Poenulus and the Rudens.^[2][3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in his speeches.^[3][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.^[7]
• c. 400 AD – Servius comments on its gender.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bath attendant, bath keeper.^[4][5][3]

Usage notes

According to Servius and Probus the word could be of common gender, so that a woman could be called haec balneātor,^[5][3] though there is also a feminine form, balneātrīx.^[5][1]

References

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