divisor

Forms

dīvīsor m (genitive dīvīsōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dīvidō (“to divide”) + -tor.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Köbler date it from Cicero,^[3][4] who calls Antony the distributor of Italy's land.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is above all one who divides things into shares, a distributor, as Eutropius' divider of a kingdom among sons.^[2][5] In Republican elections it was the agent a candidate hired to hand out bribes to voters, a man regarded as infamous;^[2][5] Cicero speaks of one brought up in the school of thieves and bribe agents.^[2][5] Lewis & Short also give the official who saw to legal distributions to the tribes.^[5] The elder Seneca uses it of a man who divides a theme into parts, and Apuleius calls the axis the divider of the world.^[2][5] Boethius uses it as an arithmetical term, the divisor, and the Vulgate of a judge.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of distributors and bribe agents.^[2][5][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of the axis of the world.^[5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate of a judge.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who divides into parts; a divider.^[2][5][1]
2. A distributor; an agent hired to distribute bribes to voters.^[2][5][1]
3. (arithmetic) A divisor.^[5]
4. (Late Latin) A judge.^[5]

Related words

• dīvidō
• dīvīsiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press