conciliator

Forms

conciliātor m (genitive conciliātōris, feminine conciliātrīx); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin conciliō (“to bring together, win over”) + -tor.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Varro,^[3] who jokingly calls the butcher the one who makes pork agreeable to the people.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is one who brings something about: an agent or intermediary, as when Nepos calls Mark Antony the promoter of a marriage, or Livy speaks of the agent of a betrayal.^[2][4] Tacitus uses it of a mediator between parties.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is found in good prose but not in Cicero.^[4]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means a conciliator, arbitrator or envoy.^[5]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it, jokingly, of a butcher.^[2][3]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it of the promoter of a marriage.^[2][4][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of the agent of a betrayal.^[2][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a mediator.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mediator.^[2][5]
2. An intermediary or agent who brings something about; a promoter.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson