Etymologically
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criminator

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kriː.mɪˈnaː.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kri.miˈnaː.tor][1]

Forms

crīminātor m (genitive crīminātōris, feminine crīminātrīx); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin crīminor (“to accuse”) + -tor.[2][3] De Vaan files the verb and crīmen (“indictment, accusation”) under cernō (“to sift, separate”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sift, separate”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has meus criminator (“my accuser”) in the Bacchides.[5][6][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it very rare.[5] Tacitus uses it of a man who hid his own faults and accused others.[5][6] Lactantius applies it to the Devil,[5] and the glossaries render it diabolus.[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a slanderer, false witness, false accuser or detractor, with the feminine criminatrix.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Bacchides.[5][4][8]
  • AD 98–115 – Tacitus uses it of one who accuses others.[5][8]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of the Devil.[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An accuser.[2][5]
  2. A slanderer, calumniator, detractor.[2][5][7]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Devil.[5][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de