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interfector

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word interfector

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*dʰeh₁-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin interficio
Latin interfector

Forms

interfector m (genitive interfectōris, feminine interfectrīx); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin interficiō (“to kill”) + -tor.[2][3][1] The verb is inter- with faciō (“to make, do”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *fak-i- and to the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), with a /k/ that arose in its aorist.[4] Cognate with Oscan fakiiad (“may do”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[5] who uses it in the speech for Milo.[6]

Semantic evolution

It means a person who kills, a killer, murderer or assassin, and the TLL notes that it belongs to prose from Cicero, Nepos and Livy on.[2][3][6] Tertullian uses it figuratively of a destroyer, the destroyer of truth.[6] Döderlein notes that homicida is the manslayer in general, as a criminal, while interfector is the slayer of a particular person, whether the deed is a crime or not.[7] Church Latin glosses it killer, slayer.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the speech for Milo.[6][5]
  • c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it.[6][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it.[6][5]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian of a destroyer of truth.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A killer, murderer, assassin.[2][6][8][1]
  2. (figurative) A destroyer.[6][1]

Word family

  • interfectorius

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Interfector.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/interfector. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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