Etymologically
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creator

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [kreˈaː.tɔr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [kreˈaː.tor][1]

Forms

creātor m (genitive creātōris, feminine creātrīx); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from creō “to create, beget” with the agent suffix -tor.[2][1][3] Wiktionary compares Sanskrit कर्तृ (kartṛ́, “maker”).[1] Isidore says God is called Creator because all things were created by him.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero, whom he dates 81–43 BC, and Cicero uses it in verse of the creator of the gods and of the founder of Rome.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

It meant one who begets, a father, as in Ovid, the creator of the world, the founder of a city, as Cicero's creātor huius urbis, and one who appoints to an office.[2][7] Lewis and Short call it very rare in the general sense.[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant creator, maker, producer.[8] Medieval Latin used it of the Creator, God.[9] It survives in Spanish and Portuguese criador and Italian creatore, and through Anglo-French it gave English creator about 1300, of God.[1][10]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the founder of Rome.[7][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a father.[7][5]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains it of God.[4][5]
  • c. 1300 – English creator is recorded.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A begetter, father.[2]
  2. The creator of the world.[2]
  3. A founder.[2]
  4. One who appoints to office.[2]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Creator, God.[9][8]

Word family

  • creātrīx

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com