Etymologically
Log in

grassator

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 19:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɡrasˈsaː.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ɡrasˈsaː.tor][1]

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