iaculator

Forms

iaculātor m (genitive iaculātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin iaculor (“to throw, hurl”) + -tor (“agent suffix”).^[2][1] De Vaan lists the verb and iaculum (“throwing spear”) among the derivatives of iaciō (“to throw”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *jak-i- and Proto-Indo-European *(H)ih₁-k-(i-) (“to throw, let go”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest instance is a line of Plautus that Isidore of Seville quotes, probus quidem anteā iaculātor erās, “you used to be a good thrower”, which Isidore explains of a fisherman casting a net.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In poetry it is any thrower: Horace calls the giant Enceladus a bold hurler of uprooted trees, and Statius uses it of Jupiter as the thrower of the thunderbolt.^[2][6] More often it is a javelin thrower: Ovid uses it of a warrior, and Livy of light-armed troops, as when he says that a Moorish javelin man was no match for a Spanish caetrātus.^[2][6] Seneca mentions javelin men sent by King Bocchus.^[6][5] L&S take Juvenal's iaculātor beside ōrātor figuratively, as an accuser,^[6] while the OLD lists it with the javelin throwers.^[2]

Medieval writers used it for javelin and stone throwers and for an attacker,^[7] and an English record of 1112 names a man iaculātor.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in a line Isidore quotes of a net-caster.^[2][4][9]
• 65–8 BC – Horace calls Enceladus a hurler of tree trunks.^[2][9]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of light-armed javelin troops.^[2][9]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it beside ōrātor.^[2][9]
• 1112 – An English document names a man iaculātor.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thrower, hurler.^[2][6]
2. A javelin thrower; a light-armed soldier armed with a javelin.^[2][6]
3. A fisherman who casts a net.^[6][5]
4. (figurative) An accuser.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A thrower of stones; an attacker.^[7]

Word family

• iaculātōrius

Related words

• iaciō
• iaculum
• iaculus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de