conversor

Forms

conversor (present infinitive conversārī, perfect active conversātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + versor (“to dwell, be engaged in”),^[1][2] the deponent of versō (“to turn often”), which is a frequentative of vertō (“to turn”).^[1][2] Wiktionary traces that verb to Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest quotation in the OLD is from Seneca the Elder, who has it with a dative: conversāta es cruentīs, “you have kept company with bloodstained men”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to keep company or live with someone, with a dative or with cum,^[2][3] and to frequent or stay in a place: Pliny the Elder says the eagle lives in the mountains,^[2][4] and Columella uses it of young bees getting used to living with their parents without quarrels.^[3] Seneca writes that people take on the character of those they live with, using the participle conversantēs as a noun.^[3][4] The jurists, and later Tertullian, use it of how one conducts oneself or behaves.^[2][4][3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to dwell, live, abide and keep company with.^[5]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca writes of the people one lives among.^[3][4][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of young bees.^[3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the eagle's haunts.^[2][6]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of a son's conduct.^[2][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of behaviour.^[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To consort or associate with; as a noun, the present participle means an associate.^[2][3][4]
2. To frequent a place, stay or live there.^[2][3]
3. To conduct oneself, behave.^[2][3]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To dwell, live, abide.^[5]

Related words

• conversātiō
• versor
• vertō

Usage notes

Köbler records a separate noun conversor, formed from convertō, in a 4th-century commentary on Luke.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de