consolator

Forms

cōnsōlātor m (genitive cōnsōlātōris, feminine cōnsōlātrīx); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnsōlor (“to console”) + -tor.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cicero,^[4] who in the Tusculan Disputations observes that the comforters themselves admit they are wretched when fortune turns on them.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it in a letter, and Seneca, writing to Helvia, says that she must be the comfort and consoler of her family.^[3][5] Jerome and Augustine use it often.^[3]

Christian writers called the Holy Spirit the cōnsōlātor, rendering the Greek παράκλητος (paráklētos): the Itala has it at John 14:26, where the Vulgate keeps paraclitus.^[3] Medieval writers used it both of a comforter and of the Holy Ghost.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the Tusculan Disputations and a letter.^[3][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in his consolation to Helvia.^[3][4]
• after 220 AD – The Itala has it for the Holy Spirit at John 14:26.^[3][4]
• 799 – Alcuin calls a correspondent the comforter of mourners.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A consoler, comforter.^[2][5][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.^[3][6]

Word family

• cōnsōlātōrius
• cōnsōlātrīx

References

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