impositor

Forms

impositor m (genitive impositōris); third declension; also spelled inpositor.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is an agent noun formed from Latin impōnō (“to place upon”) + -tor.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro uses it in De lingua Latina for the person who first gave things their names.^[1][2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is found only in Varro, meaning one who assigns a name to a thing.^[1][4][5] The TLL treats it in one article with impostor, the syncopated form that took the sense of a deceiver.^[3]

Medieval Latin used impositor more widely: one who places something on something else, a collector of taxes and dues, one who imposes conditions or laws, a deceiver, an accuser, and in music the singer who intones a chant.^[6][7] Scholastic logicians revived Varro's sense for whoever assigns a word its meaning.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro speaks of the person who assigned names to things.^[1][2][8]
• 1238 – An imperial document calls collectors of levies impositores.^[6]
• 1st half of the 14th century – William of Ockham uses it for one who imposes an order and for one who brings charges.^[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who assigns a name to a thing.^[1][2][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) One who places or sets something on something else.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A collector of taxes or dues; one who imposes conditions, laws or taxes.^[6][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A deceiver; an accuser.^[6][7]
5. (Medieval Latin, music) The one who intones a chant.^[6]

Related words

• impostor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e 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
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de