genitor

Forms

genitor m (genitive genitōris, feminine genetrīx or genitrīx); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin gignō (“to beget”) + -tor.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary and de Vaan also consider it an inherited agent noun Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tōr (“begetter, parent”), matching Ancient Greek γενέτωρ (genétōr, “begetter”); de Vaan points out that the medial vowel could instead show a later derivation from the participle genitus.^[1][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Ennius,^[5][3] who calls Jupiter ō genitor noster Sāturnie, maxime dīvum, “O our father, son of Saturn, greatest of the gods”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Genitor is one's father, a word of high style (Accius, Virgil: subiit cārī genitōris imāgō, “the image of my dear father came to me”), applied to Jupiter and to Neptune.^[2][6] It is also a cause or originator (Ovid: Quirinus, genitor urbis, Pliny the Elder calls the Greeks “begetters of every vice”).^[2]

Church Latin uses it for a father and for God the Creator.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius: ō genitor noster Sāturnie.^[2][3]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius: genitōrem iniūstum adprobās.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: cārī genitōris imāgō.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder: vitiōrum omnium genitōrēs.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A father, parent, begetter, sire.^[2][6][1][7]
2. (of Jupiter, Neptune) Father.^[2]
3. A cause, originator, author.^[2][6]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Creator.^[7]

Related words

• gignō
• genetrīx
• prōgenitor
• pater

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 j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson