grassator

Forms

grassātor m (genitive grassātōris); third declension^[1] It is also spelled crassātor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin grassor (“to roam, prowl”) + -tor.^[2][3][1] That verb, “to press on, march”, is built on the stem of gradior (“to step, walk”), from Proto-Italic *grad-(e)i- and Proto-Indo-European *g(h)rd(h)-(e)i-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cato's Carmen de moribus, quoted by Gellius,^[4][2][5] meaning a vagabond or idler: poetry had no honour then, and anyone who studied it or attached himself to banquets was called a grassātor.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From Cicero on it means one who roams the streets with violent intent, a footpad or highway robber: Cicero argues that a well-dressed traveller would then be said to have given the robber a reason to rob him.^[2][6] Petronius has the nocturnus grassātor, and Suetonius reports that many such robbers went about openly with swords at their belts.^[2][6] Quintilian and Juvenal use it in the same way,^[2] and in the declamations ascribed to Quintilian it also serves as a general term of abuse.^[2]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for an idle vagabond.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a highway robber.^[2][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius speaks of a robber by night.^[2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius describes robbers going about armed.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vagabond, an idler.^[2][6]
2. A footpad, highway robber, one who roams about at night with violence.^[2][6]
3. (figurative) A plunderer; a term of abuse.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press