ereptor

Forms

ēreptor m (genitive ēreptōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēripiō (“to snatch away”) + -tor.^[2][3] De Vaan lists ēripiō among the compounds of rapiō (“to seize”),^[4] which he traces to Proto-Italic *rap-i- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁r̥p-i- (“to seize”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first,^[5] meaning “one who takes away by force, a robber”: in the speech for Quinctius he calls a man a possessor of property, an expeller and a ēreptor.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it with a genitive of the thing taken: a robber of the state, a tyrant and robber of liberty.^[3][7] Tacitus has terrārum ēreptōrēs, robbers of lands, and Boethius calls avarice a violent robber of other people's wealth.^[3][8]

In Christian Latin it took the opposite sense, “one who snatches someone away from danger”, a deliverer: Gregory the Great uses it of God.^[3] Medieval British and German sources use it for a rescuer or deliverer, and of God or Christ.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a robber.^[3][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus speaks of robbers of lands.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A robber, plunderer.^[2][7]
2. (Late Latin) A deliverer, rescuer, especially of God.^[3][9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften