Etymologically
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genitor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɡɛ.nɪ.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈd͡ʒɛː.ni.tor][1]

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]

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