declamator

Forms

dēclāmātor m (genitive dēclāmātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēclāmō (“to declaim, practise speaking”) + -tor, an agent noun.^[2][3][4] The verb is formed from dē- and clāmō (“to shout”),^[1] which de Vaan takes from a lost noun meaning “shout”; it goes back to Proto-Italic *klām-o/ā- and Proto-Indo-European *klh₁-m(o)-.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cicero on;^[3][4] in the Orator he says that he is looking not for some declaimer from the school but for the most learned and accomplished speaker.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The word named a person who composed or delivered speeches as an exercise in oratory.^[2] It was set against the real orator: Quintilian distinguishes the declaimer from the practical speaker of the courts.^[6] The elder Seneca uses it constantly in his collections of declamations, and among the poets only Juvenal has it.^[3] Georges defines it as a teacher of eloquence who held speaking exercises in a school.^[7]

In Medieval Latin it still meant an orator or a performer of speeches, and also a preacher or proclaimer.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the school declaimer, as opposed to the true orator.^[3][6][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian distinguishes the declaimer from the practical speaker.^[6][4]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal is the only poet to use it.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who composes or delivers speeches as an exercise in oratory, a declaimer.^[2][6]
2. A teacher of rhetoric who held speaking exercises in a school.^[7][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) An orator; a preacher or proclaimer.^[8]

Word family

• dēclāmātōrius

Related words

• clāmō
• English declaim

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften