cognitor

Forms

cognitor m (genitive cognitōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cognōscō (“to get to know”) + -tor, an agent noun.^[2][3][4] Lewis & Short explain the legal sense from one who has become familiar with a case.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero.^[3] The OLD's earliest example is the Rhetorica ad Herennium, of a man over sixty appointing a legal representative.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Roman law it is the representative who takes over another's suit, in set words and in the presence of the opponent, as Gaius explains;^[2][5] Cicero states that nobody can sue for another unless he has been made his attorney.^[2][5] Cicero also uses it of a person who vouches for someone's identity, in the Verrines of a man who was not known and could not provide a wealthy guarantor.^[2] In Apuleius it is simply one who knows a person or thing.^[2] Church Latin glosses it witness, knower,^[6] and in Medieval Latin it means a judge or an expert.^[7]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a legal representative.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of attorneys and of a guarantor of identity.^[2][4]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius explains how an attorney is appointed.^[2][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of one who knows a person.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who knows or is acquainted with a person or thing; a guarantor of someone's identity, a witness.^[2][1]
2. (law) A legal representative, attorney, advocate.^[2][5][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A judge; an expert.^[7]

Word family

• cognitūra

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill