Etymologically
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declamator

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deː.kɫaːˈmaː.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [de.klaˈmaː.tor][1]

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

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