iurator

Forms

iūrātor m (genitive iūrātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the agent noun from Latin iūrō (“to swear”) + -tor.^[2][3] The verb is a denominative of iūs² (“law”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *jowos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂oi-u (“vital force, eternity”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is the first to use it,^[4][2] for the official who took the sworn declarations of tax-payers at the census: in the Trinummus an old man says he gave the iurator a true account when he was assessed.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was mainly the assistant of the censor who received the sworn returns,^[2][5] a sense Livy still uses.^[2] Plautus applied it jokingly to the audience, as judges of a play,^[5][2] and Seneca's Apocolocyntosis asks who ever demanded sworn witnesses from a historian, though the reading there is doubted.^[2][3] Late writers used it for anyone who swears, Macrobius speaking of a falsus iurator, a perjurer.^[5][6] In Medieval Latin it meant an oath-helper, a sworn witness and a sworn member of an inquest, a juror.^[7][8] The English word juror comes from it through the Anglo-French jurour, and Etymonline notes the word in Anglo-Latin from the late 12th century.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the census official who took sworn declarations.^[2][10]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it in the same sense.^[2][10]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for a sworn witness.^[2][10]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius speaks of a perjurer as a falsus iurator.^[5][6][10]
• late 12th century – It appears in Anglo-Latin for a juror.^[9]
• c. 1300 – English has juror, through Anglo-French.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An official who received the sworn declarations of tax-payers at the census, an assistant of the censor.^[2][5]
2. A sworn witness, one who vouches for the truth of a statement.^[2][11]
3. (Late Latin) One who swears an oath;^[5][6] falsus iūrātor, a perjurer.^[5][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) An oath-helper.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A sworn witness or member of an inquest, a juror.^[7][8]

Word family

• iūrātōrius

Related words

• English juror

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier