hortator

Forms

hortātor m (genitive hortātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin hortor (“to urge, encourage”) + -tor.^[2][3][1] De Vaan explains hortor as a frequentative built on a participle ⟨*hortus⟩ of horior (“to urge on”), or as syncopated from the form ⟨horitāre⟩ that Ennius uses.^[4] That verb goes back to Proto-Italic *χerj- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer-i- (“to enjoy”), originally perhaps “to be excited”, and has Sabellic cognates meaning “to want”, such as Umbrian heri.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Ennius, Plautus and Cicero on;^[3] de Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who uses it of the leader of a ship's rowers.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it is a person who urges someone on: the encourager and teacher of a study, or a man acting as instigator, backer and go-between (istō hortātōre, auctōre, intercessōre).^[6][5] Virgil calls Ulysses the instigator of crimes (hortātor scelerum),^[7] and Ovid praises a friend as a good counsellor, guide and companion.^[7] In battle it was the commander who urged on his men: Livy writes that Hannibal himself was there to spur them on.^[2] In the circus it apparently named an official who urged on the horses of a chariot team, as in an inscription of a hortātor of the Blue faction.^[2]

Ecclesiastical Latin used it of a comforter or encourager,^[8] and Walter Map writes of someone who is a jester to the king, a flatterer to the mother and an hortātor to the father.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the leader of the rowers.^[5][10]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.^[3][10]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an encourager or instigator.^[6][10]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil calls Ulysses an instigator of crimes.^[7][10]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a commander urging on his troops.^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who urges to action, an inciter, encourager, instigator.^[2][6][11]
2. One who urges on troops in battle.^[2]
3. (nautical) The leader of the rowers.^[5]
4. (circus) Apparently, one who urged on the horses in a chariot race.^[2]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A comforter.^[8]

Word family

• hortātōrius

Related words

• hortor
• horior

Usage notes

Hortātor is also recorded as a Roman surname in Livy.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn