compilator

Forms

compīlātor m (genitive compīlātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin compīlō (“to plunder”) + -tor.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jerome is the first author to use it: he recalls that Virgil, for translating some lines of Homer word for word, was called by his rivals a compilator veterum, a plunderer of the ancients.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Glossaries render it with words for a thief,^[2][6] and in British sources it can still mean a thief or hoarder.^[7] Its main use was for literary theft: Isidore of Seville defines the compiler as one who mixes others' sayings with his own, as perfumers pound different things together in a mortar.^[2][4]

In Medieval Latin the word lost its blame and meant the compiler or author of a work, including the writer of a charter,^[8][9][7] though Roger Bacon could still say that Priscian was more a compiler than an author.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome reports that Virgil was called a compilator veterum.^[2][10]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville defines the word.^[2][10]
• 933 – A British charter uses it of Judas as a hoarder of money.^[7]
• 1230 – A charter from Tyrol calls its writer its compilator.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plunderer, thief.^[2][7]
2. A literary thief, plagiarist.^[2][5][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) A compiler, the author of a literary work or of a document.^[8][9][7]

Related words

• compīlātiō
• compīlō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e f 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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de