caduceator

Forms

cādūceātor m (genitive cādūceātōris); third declension^[1] Also written cādūciātor.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin cādūceum (“herald's staff”) + -tor.^[3][1][4] The OLD derives that noun from Ancient Greek κηρύκειον (kērúkeion, “herald's staff”) or its form καρύκειον (karúkeion), with /d/ in place of /r/;^[3][5] Köbler connects the Greek word with κῆρυξ (kêrux, “herald”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL record it first in a fragment of Cato, caduceatori nemo homo nocet, “no one harms a herald”.^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

It named the herald who carried the staff, the token of a peaceful embassy, sent to the other side to treat for a truce or for peace; the OLD notes that in the historians he is apparently sent by non-Roman generals.^[3][6] Livy uses it often, as of a herald sent to the consul to ask for a truce to bury the dead,^[4][7] and he sets the caduceator apart from the legati, the envoys who followed.^[4] Curtius tells of heralds killed by the Tyrians against the law of nations.^[4] Servius notes that Livy calls envoys of peace caduceatores: as war was declared through the fetials, so peace was made through heralds.^[4][6]

Arnobius uses it for a herald in the mysteries and calls Mercury caduceator ille Cyllenius.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato says that no one harms a herald.^[4][2]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of heralds sent to ask for a truce.^[4][7][2]
• 1st century AD – Curtius tells of heralds killed by the Tyrians.^[4][2]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of heralds in the mysteries and of Mercury.^[4][2]
• c. 400 AD – Servius explains that peace was made through heralds.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A herald bearing a caduceus, sent to treat for a truce or for peace.^[3][6][7]
2. (Late Latin) A herald in the mysteries; of Mercury, the herald of the gods.^[4][7]

Related words

• cādūceum
• cādūcifer

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn