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conqueror

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word conqueror

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (queror)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin queror
Latin questus
Latin conqueror
Latin querulus
Latin querimonia

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔŋ.kʷɛ.rɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔŋ.kʷe.ror][1]

Forms

conqueror (present infinitive conquerī, perfect active conquestus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + queror (“to complain”).[2][3][1] The verb queror goes back to Proto-Italic *kwes-e/o-;[4] Walde–Hofmann, Pokorny and the LIV derive it from Proto-Indo-European *kʷes- (“to hiss”), through “to sigh”, which de Vaan calls possible but not compelling.[4] On that view it is cognate with Sanskrit श्वसिति (śvásiti, “to hiss, snort”) and Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4] whose miser in the Aulularia “wails and complains in grief” and says “I bewail my poverty”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to utter a complaint or lament, and transitively to complain of or bewail something.[2] Cicero quotes a line of Pacuvius that it is fitting to complain of misfortune, but not to wail over it.[5] Lewis & Short note that it is used in classical prose and poetry, of strong or prolonged lament.[5]

Church Latin glosses it “complain, bewail”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of lament and of bewailing poverty.[2][4][7]
  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of complaining of misfortune.[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To complain, lament.[2][5][1]
  2. To complain of, bewail.[2][5][1]

Word family

  • conquestiō
  • conquestus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e 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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Conqueror.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/conqueror. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·