commendator

Forms

commendātor m (genitive commendātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin commendō (“to entrust, recommend”) + -tor.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Younger, in his letters, pairs it with fautor, “patron”: fautor etiam commendatorque, “a supporter and recommender as well”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it belongs to post-Augustan prose.^[4] Porphyrio's commentary on Horace, the Panegyrics, the Historia Augusta and Symmachus use it;^[3][4] in the Panegyrics love is called the commender of deeds.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it still meant a supporter or recommender, and also a worshipper, a burier, a commentator or an author, and in law a depositor;^[5] above all it named the commander of a house of a military order, the Hospitallers or the Teutonic Order.^[6][5] Niermeyer also gives the sense of a limited partner in a business,^[6] and Du Cange notes that it was written interchangeably with commendatarius.^[7]

Timeline

• 97–113 AD – Pliny the Younger uses it in his letters.^[4][3]
• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus uses it in his letters.^[4][8]
• 1188 – Köbler records a medieval use dated to this year.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who recommends, a supporter.^[2][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) The commander of a house of the Hospitallers or of the Teutonic Order.^[6][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A limited partner.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin, law) One who deposits something in another's keeping.^[5]

Word family

• commendatorius

References

1. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de