Etymologically
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hortator

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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

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