consultor

Forms

cōnsultor m (genitive cōnsultōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnsulō (“to deliberate, consult”) + -tor.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces cōnsulō to Proto-Italic *kom-se/ol-e/o- (“to consult”), from Proto-Indo-European *s(e)lh₁-e/o- (“to take”), cognate with Ancient Greek εἷλον (heîlon, “took”), and thinks it first meant to get together, deliberate.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short quote it first from Afranius, preserved by Nonius, of one who deliberates on something.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

It is a counsellor or adviser: Gellius quotes a popular verse that bad advice is worst for the adviser,^[2] and Lewis & Short find this sense several times in Sallust but rare elsewhere.^[6] It is also one who consults: the client of a lawyer, as Cicero says of rising at night to answer clients,^[2] and one who consults an oracle or astrologer, as in Lucan.^[2] Servius and a scholiast on Horace explain it as one who asks for advice.^[3] Stelten gives “counselor, adviser”, and Niermeyer a town counsellor in Medieval Latin.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius, of one who deliberates.^[6][4]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust, of an adviser.^[6][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a lawyer's clients.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A counsellor, adviser.^[2][6][1][7]
2. One who consults: the client of a lawyer; one who consults an oracle.^[2][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A town counsellor.^[8]

Related words

• cōnsulō
• cōnsul
• cōnsilium

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill