compulsor

Forms

compulsor m (genitive compulsōris); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is an agent noun, from Latin compellō¹ (“to drive together, force”) + -tor, formed on the participle stem ⟨compuls-⟩.^[1][2][3] The verb is a compound of pellō (“to drive”),^[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *pl-n(e)-h₂- (“to approach”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from authors of the 4th century on.^[2] Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 390 AD) uses it of people who press and urge others on, calling some men the keenest instigators of a betrayal (proditionis acerrimi compulsores).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Palladius uses it literally of the driver of an ox,^[1][2] while Ammianus and the Theodosian Code apply it to officials who exacted payments.^[1] In Late Latin it also named an overseer who drives others to work (a gloss renders it with Greek ἐργοδιώκτης (ergodiṓktēs)), and in monastic rules the brother who rouses the monks to their duties.^[2] The Visigothic laws have a title on compulsores.^[2][3]

Medieval Latin kept the senses of driver and of someone who urges or presses, and used it for officials who levied soldiers or collected taxes and debts.^[5] British sources of the 14th and 15th centuries use it for someone who constrains another and for an enforcer of legal compulsion.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of instigators and of exactors of payments.^[2][1][3]
• late 4th–early 5th century AD – Palladius uses it of the driver of an ox.^[2][3]
• 1377 – A British document uses it of those who constrain clergy.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A driver (of cattle).^[1][2]
2. One who urges or presses, an instigator.^[2][5]
3. One who exacts payment, a collector of money or taxes.^[1][5]
4. (Late Latin) An overseer of work; in monasteries, the brother who rouses the others to their duties.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) An official who levies soldiers.^[5]
6. (Medieval Latin) One who constrains; an enforcer of legal compulsion.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c 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