circumscriptor

Forms

circumscriptor m (genitive circumscriptōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin circumscrībō (“to draw a line around; to cheat”) + -tor.^[2][1][3] The verb is formed from circum (“around”) and scrībō (“to write”),^[1] which goes back to Proto-Italic *skreif-e/o- (“to carve”) and Proto-Indo-European *skreibʰ-e/o- (“to carve”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first, in the second speech against Catiline, in a list of criminals beside the forger of wills.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It follows the verb's sense of cheating: a defrauder, swindler or cheat, especially in law, where it often takes an objective genitive.^[6][5] Seneca the Elder notes that those who had taken something away were usually called by this name.^[5] Juvenal and Ambrose use it,^[6][7] and the Theodosian Code has it in legal language.^[6]

From the verb's sense of cancelling, Tertullian uses it of one who annuls his own judgement.^[6][8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a cheat.^[6][5][9]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it.^[6][9]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of one who annuls his own judgement.^[6][8][9]
• 438 AD – The Theodosian Code uses it in legal language.^[6][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A defrauder, deceiver, cheat.^[2][6]
2. (Late Latin) One who annuls or makes void something.^[6][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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 d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de