Etymologically
Log in

elevator

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 05:57. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

ēlevātor m (genitive ēlevātōris); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is an agent noun from Latin ēlevō (“to lift up”), formed with the suffix -tor.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a word of Church Latin.[1] Jerome (c. 383–419/420)[4] uses it in his translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew, where God is called ēlevātor meus, “my upholder”; the older Latin psalter has susceptor there.[2]

Semantic evolution

The Vulgate uses it in the Second Book of Kings, where God is called “my upholder and my refuge, my saviour”, in the sense of one who lifts up and protects, a deliverer.[1][2][3] The MLW records it, with a query, in a saint's life in the sense of a bearer, of one carrying a cross.[5]

English took it over in the 1640s, first for muscles that raise a part of the body; elevator for a mechanical lift dates from 1787.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 383–419/420 – Jerome calls God ēlevātor meus in his psalter from the Hebrew.[2][4]
  • 390–406 – The Vulgate uses it for God as protector.[1][4]
  • 1640s – Borrowed into English for a muscle that raises a part of the body.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) One who raises up; a protector, deliverer.[1][3][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A bearer.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com