Etymologically
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consultor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kõːˈsʊɫ.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [konˈsul.tor][1]

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]

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