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emptor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word emptor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*h₁em-e/o-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin emo
Latin exemplum
French exemple
Latin emptor

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈeːmp.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛmp.tor][1]

Forms

ēmptor m (genitive ēmptōris); third declension[1] It is also spelled emtor, and in a Christian inscription imptor.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin emō (“to buy”) + -tor.[4][1][5] De Vaan derives ⟨emō⟩ from Proto-Italic *eme/o- (“to take”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁em-e/o- (“to take”), so that buying was first taking.[6] Cognate with Umbrian emantur (“may be taken”) and Oscan emmens (“they bought”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it in the Poenulus and the Persa;[2] Köbler also gives Plautus.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a purchaser or buyer, as in Cicero's discussion of what a seller must tell a buyer, and Horace's buyer of disgrace at a high price.[4][2][1] In law the emptor familiae is the nominal buyer of an estate in the old form of will, as in Suetonius.[2] Juvenal calls Philip of Macedon the “cunning buyer of Olynthus”, one who gets his way by bribery.[4]

Church Latin glosses it “buyer, purchaser”.[7] In Medieval Latin it is also a merchant and a tax-farmer.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of buyer and seller.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a buyer of disgrace.[2][5]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of Philip as buyer of Olynthus.[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A buyer, purchaser;[4][2][1][7] emptor familiae, the nominal buyer of an estate.[2]
  2. One who gains by bribery.[4]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A merchant; a tax-farmer.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
Cite this entry

“Emptor.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/emptor. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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