demonstrator

Forms

dēmōnstrātor m (genitive dēmōnstrātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dēmōnstrō (“to point out”) + -tor.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's De oratore (55 BC), where Simonides is said to have been able to point out where each of the dead was to be buried:^[4][5] dēmōnstrātor ūniuscuiusque sepeliendī (“the one who pointed out each man to be buried”).^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was a rare word for a person who points something out.^[2][6] Columella uses it for the one who shows a method,^[6][5] and Tertullian calls Aesculapius the demonstrator medicinarum, the discoverer and teacher of remedies.^[6] Christian writers applied it figuratively, and in British medieval Latin it also meant an indicator or forerunner and, in logic, a demonstrator.^[7]

Timeline

• 55 BC – Cicero uses it in De oratore for Simonides pointing out the dead.^[4]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the one who explains a method.^[6][8]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian calls Aesculapius the demonstrator of remedies.^[6][8]
• first third of the 8th century – Bede uses it in a homily, paired with praecursor, forerunner.^[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who points out or indicates; a guide.^[2][6]
2. One who explains or shows how something is done.^[6][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) An indicator, a forerunner.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin, logic) One who demonstrates a proof.^[7]

Word family

• dēmonstrātōrius

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. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de