concitator

Forms

concitātor m (genitive concitātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin concitō (“to stir up, rouse”) + -tor.^[2][3][4] That verb is formed with con- from citō² (“to set in motion”), the frequentative of cieō (“to stir, move”), which it replaced in Classical Latin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero,^[6][7] in phrases such as concitātor tabernāriōrum, “the man who stirred up the shopkeepers”, and sēditiōnis īnstimulātor et concitātor, “the goad and rouser of sedition”.^[8][3][7]

Semantic evolution

It always kept the sense of one who rouses others, usually to disorder.^[2][8] With a genitive it named either the people stirred up, as with Cicero's shopkeepers, or the thing provoked: Hirtius has concitātor bellī, “instigator of the war”, and Livy turbae ac tumultūs concitātor.^[8][3][7] Seneca uses it without a genitive: a roused crowd outran the very man who had roused it.^[8][7] It is a rare word,^[8] found also in Tacitus, in the jurists, and in Firmicus Maternus, for whom the planet Saturn stirs up disturbances.^[7]

Medieval writers used it of an agitator of the common people and of the instigators of sedition and crimes.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a political agitator.^[8][6]
• c. 50 BC – Hirtius uses it of the instigator of a war.^[8][3][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of an instigator of riot and tumult.^[8][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it without a genitive.^[7][6]
• 343/350 AD – Firmicus Maternus calls Saturn a rouser of disturbances.^[7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An agitator, one who stirs up a crowd or a group of people.^[2][3][9]
2. An instigator (of war, sedition or tumult).^[2][8][10]

Usage notes

In Tacitus and Eutropius the manuscripts also have the shorter form concitor.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier