contionor

Forms

cōntiōnor (present infinitive cōntiōnārī, perfect active cōntiōnātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] Ecclesiastical Latin spells it conciōnor.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōntiō (“assembly, public meeting”) + -or.^[3][4][1] De Vaan traces cōntiō to Proto-Italic *ko(m)-wentiōn-, a form with ⟨*kom-⟩ “together” of Proto-Indo-European *gʷm-ti- (“the coming”); the old ablative ⟨coventionid⟩ in the senate's decree on the Bacchanalia shows the uncontracted form.^[5] It goes back to the same root as conveniō (“to come together”).^[1] Cognate with Sanskrit गति (gáti-, “motion”) and Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “step”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest quotation in the OLD is from Cicero, who describes a man who harangued the people nudus, unctus, ēbrius, “naked, oiled and drunk”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense, by far the commonest according to Lewis & Short, is to address a public meeting or harangue an assembly of the people or of soldiers:^[6][3] Cicero tells how Dionysius used to harangue from a high tower,^[6] and Caesar apud mīlitēs cōntiōnātur.^[6][7] Livy also uses it of people gathered in an assembly, in singulī ūniversōs cōntiōnantēs timent, “individually they fear you assembled together”.^[3][6][7] With an accusative and infinitive it means to declare publicly: Cicero reports that Gaius Cato declared he would not allow the elections to be held.^[6][7] Lactantius uses it of a prophecy proclaimed by the Sibyl,^[6] and Tertullian also uses it in a passive sense.^[7][4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of haranguing a crowd and of public declarations.^[3][6][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar addresses his soldiers.^[6][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of people in assembly.^[3][8]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of the Sibyl's prophecy.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deliver a public speech, address a meeting, harangue.^[3][6][1]
2. To attend or form an assembly.^[3][6]
3. To declare publicly, proclaim.^[6][7][1]

Word family

• cōntiōnābundus
• cōntiōnātor

Related words

• cōntiō
• veniō

References

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