censor

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkẽː.sɔr]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈt͡ʃɛn.sor]^[1]

Forms

cēnsor m (genitive cēnsōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from cēnsēre “to assess, estimate” with the agent suffix -tor.^[2][3][1] Cēnsēre goes back to Proto-Italic *knsē- (“to estimate”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱn̥s- (“to announce, speak solemnly”), as in Sanskrit शंसति (śáṃsati, “recites, praises”).^[4][5] Oscan keenzstur (“censor”) was borrowed from Latin, according to de Vaan, while the TLL treats it as the same word.^[4][3] The archaic spelling cesor appears in a Scipio epitaph.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from the Scipio epitaphs and Cato;^[7] an epitaph reads aidiles cosol cesor “aedile, consul, censor”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was the title of the two Roman magistrates elected every five years, at first for five years and later for eighteen months, who took the census, classified citizens by property, struck names off the rolls for moral or other faults, and let public contracts.^[2][8] Livy says they were named from the census.^[9] Domitian took the title censor perpetuus.^[2] Roman colonies and Sicilian towns also had censors.^[2]

By transfer it meant a severe judge of behaviour and morals, as Horace's castigator censorque minorum “scold and censor of the young”, and a critic of literary work.^[2][8] In medieval Latin it meant a villein owing rent, a rent collector, a critic and a judge.^[10] English borrowed it in the 1530s for the Roman magistrate, and the sense of an official who examines books and plays followed in the 1640s.^[5]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – A Scipio epitaph records the office as cesor.^[2][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato says a husband is like a censor to his divorced wife.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero describes the creation of censors in Sicily.^[2][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace calls an old man the censor of the young.^[2][7]
• 81–96 AD – Domitian takes the title censor perpetuus.^[2]
• 1530s – English borrows it as English censor.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Roman censor, one of two magistrates in charge of the census and public morals.^[2][8]
2. A similar official in a colony or provincial town.^[2]
3. A severe judge of morals; a critic.^[2][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A rent-owing villein; a rent collector; a judge.^[10]

Word family

• censōrīnus
• cēnsūra
• cēnsōrius

Related words

• cēnsitor
• cēnseō
• cēnsus
• English censor
• English census

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill