castigator

Forms

castīgātor m (genitive castīgātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin castīgō (“to correct, reprimand”) + -tor.^[2][1] De Vaan lists the verb among the words built on castus “pure, chaste”, whose root goes back to Proto-Italic *kas-ē- (“to lack”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][3] meaning someone who reproves or corrects; in the Trinummus a speaker is told “vicisti castigatorem tuom” (“you have beaten your corrector”).^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant a person who rebukes or corrects others, often with a genitive of what is corrected: Livy speaks of a castīgātor of tears and idle complaints, and Horace pairs it with cēnsor.^[5][2] Lewis & Short note that Cicero does not use it.^[5] Columella, Seneca and Pliny the Younger also have it.^[5][4]

Medieval Latin used it for a disciplinarian or taskmaster and, more narrowly, for a person who mortifies himself.^[6] In British medieval Latin it could also mean the corrector or emender of a text.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Trinummus.^[4][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace writes “castigator censorque minorum”.^[5][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it with the genitive of what is reproved.^[5][8]
• 1516 – A British text uses it of the corrector of a text.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who reproves or corrects, a critic.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A disciplinarian, one who chastises.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) A person who mortifies himself.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) A corrector or emender of a text.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de