latro
Latin has two common words spelled latro: the verb lātrō “to bark” and the noun latrō “mercenary, robber”, which differ in the length of the first vowel.[1][2]
latro1 bark
Pronunciation
Forms
lātrō (present infinitive lātrāre, perfect active lātrāvī, supine lātrātum); first conjugation[3]
Etymology
The verb is inherited from Proto-Italic *lātrom, from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to bark, howl”), an expressive root.[3] The TLL takes it as a verb made from a lost noun in ⟨-tro-⟩ or ⟨-tra-⟩, as lāmentor was made from lāmenta, and places the root beside Slavonic, Lithuanian and Albanian verbs for barking.[4] The OLD and Wiktionary compare lāmentum (“wailing”);[1][3] Wiktionary adds Ancient Greek λάσκω (láskō, “to crack, shout”) and λῆρος (lêros, “nonsense”).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
Ennius uses it of a bitch that barks without teeth (quasi fēta canēs sine dentibus lātrat), and Plautus has etiam mē meae lātrant canēs?, “are even my own dogs barking at me?”.[1][5]
Semantic evolution
Lātrō is the barking and baying of dogs, also of the cries of some birds and the roar of waves (Virgil).[1] Used of people it is to cry out like a hound on the scent, and to bawl in speaking: Cicero says some orators “bark rather than speak”.[1][6] Horace has the “barking” (craving) stomach, and Lucretius nature that “clamours” for nothing else, so it also means to make insistent demands.[1]
Döderlein contrasts lātrāre, the hostile bark of a large dog and figuratively “to wrangle”, with gannīre, the harmless yelp of a small dog, “to chatter”, and baubārī, “to howl”.[7] Church Latin glosses it “bark”.[8]
Timeline
- 204–169 BC – Ennius: quasi fēta canēs sine dentibus lātrat.[1][5]
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: etiam mē meae lātrant canēs?.[1][5]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero of orators who bark rather than speak.[1][5]
- 70–19 BC – Virgil of waves roaring round a rock.[1][5]
Meanings
Verb
- (of dogs) To bark, bay.[1][6][8]
- (of waves) To roar.[1]
- To bark at.[1]
- To cry out (like a hound on the scent); to bawl, rant.[1][6]
- To make insistent demands, clamour (for).[1]
Word family
- allātrō
- circumlatrō
- collātrō
- ēlātrō
- illātrō
- oblātrō
- lātrābilis
- lātrātor
- lātrātus
- lātrātōrius
latro2 robber
Pronunciation
Forms
latrō m (genitive latrōnis); third declension[3]
Etymology
The robber was first a hired soldier, and the word is probably from Ancient Greek λάτρον (látron, “pay, wages”).[1][4] The OLD derives it from an unattested Greek ⟨*látrōn⟩, comparing λατρεύς (latreús, “hired servant”);[1] the TLL gives the choice between a Greek ⟨*látrēs⟩ “mercenary” and a Latin noun ⟨*latrum⟩ “pay”, from which it would be formed as praedō is from praeda.[4] Lewis & Short and Köbler compare λάτρις (látris, “hired servant”);[6][5] Köbler and Wiktionary also mention Proto-Indo-European *leh₂t- (“to grant, possess”), and Wiktionary calls the origin disputed.[5][3]
Earliest recorded meaning
Ennius uses it of mercenaries: fortūnās … suās coepēre latrōnēs inter sē memorāre, “the hired soldiers began to talk among themselves of their fortunes”.[1][5] Plautus still has the sense: ut latrōnēs quōs condūxī hinc ad Seleucum dūcere (“to lead the mercenaries I hired to Seleucus”).[1] Lewis & Short note that the sense “hireling, mercenary” is only pre-classical.[6]
Semantic evolution
From the soldier serving for pay the word came to mean a brigand, robber or bandit: Cicero cites the Twelve Tables, which forbid killing a thief “that is, a robber and bandit” by day.[1] It was a term of abuse (Cicero, of Antony), was used with a genitive for a plunderer, and was applied to predatory animals such as the wolf in Phaedrus and to a hunter lying in wait.[1] In Ovid and Martial a latrō is a piece in a board game.[1] Latrō was also a Roman cognomen, borne by the rhetorician Marcus Porcius Latro, a friend of the elder Seneca.[1][6]
In Church Latin it is the robber or thief;[8] medieval Latin also uses it for criminal jurisdiction over theft and robbery, and for a demon.[9]
Timeline
- 204–169 BC – Ennius of mercenaries.[1][5]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero of a robber in the Twelve Tables.[1][5]
- 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a piece in a board game.[1][5]
- c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus calls the wolf latrō.[1][5]
Meanings
Noun
- A hired soldier, mercenary.[1][6]
- A brigand, robber, bandit; also a term of abuse, a plunderer.[1][6][8]
- A beast of prey; a hunter in ambush.[1]
- A piece in a board game.[1]
- (Medieval Latin) A thief; jurisdiction over theft and robbery; a demon.[9]
Word family
- latrōcinium
- latrōcinor
- latrunculus
Related words
- latrōcinālis
- latrōcinātiō
- latrunculārius
- lāmentum
- praedō
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
- ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill