Etymologically
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latrocinor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫaˈtroː.kɪ.nɔr], [ɫatˈroː.kɪ.nɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [laˈtrɔː.t͡ʃi.nor], [latˈrɔː.t͡ʃi.nor][1]

Forms

latrōcinor (present infinitive latrōcinārī, perfect active latrōcinātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin latrō2 (“mercenary; robber”) + -cinor.[1][2] The OLD explains it as made from latrōcinium (“military service for pay; brigandage”) in the same way.[3] The origin of that noun for “mercenary” is disputed: it is often compared with Ancient Greek λάτρις (látris, “hired servant”) and traced to an Indo-European root, but Beekes takes it as a borrowing from an unattested *λάτρων (*látrōn).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL first records it in Plautus,[2] in the old sense of serving as a hired soldier: in the Miles Gloriosus a soldier's slave is asked whether he thinks he may do as he likes because he and his fellows serve for pay.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Its early sense, “to serve as a mercenary”, belongs to Plautus, who also has a man going off to serve in Asia or Cilicia and another who served King Demetrius for ten years;[3][4] in the Poenulus he uses it jokingly of things that “rob” a man because they want ready cash.[2] Lewis & Short call this sense ante-classical.[4]

From Cicero on it means “to practise brigandage”: Catiline would rather be killed as a brigand than live as an exile, and the Cretans and Aetolians, Cicero says, think robbery honourable;[3][4] he also uses it of piracy, setting seafaring peoples who sailed for trade beside those who sailed to plunder.[4][5] Celsus applies it to a doctor who dissects a body, and Pliny the Elder to the stingray, which lies in ambush and strikes passing fish with its spine.[3][4][6]

It is also used transitively, of harrying a stretch of land or sea: Seneca the Elder speaks of pirates who plunder lands and seas alike, and Florus has it of a gulf.[3][7] Eutropius construes it with a dative, of capturing Roman ships.[6] An active form is found in the Historia Augusta, and Augustine has the adverb latrōcinanter, “like a robber”.[6][4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of serving as a hired soldier.[3][2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of brigandage and piracy.[3][4][8]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus applies it to a doctor dissecting a body.[3][8]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a predatory fish.[3][8]
  • c. 120 AD – Florus uses it transitively, of harrying a gulf.[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To serve as a mercenary soldier.[3][4]
  2. To practise brigandage or piracy, to rob.[3][4]
  3. (of predatory animals) To lie in wait for prey.[3][4]
  4. (transitive) To harry, plunder (a stretch of land or sea).[3][6]

Usage notes

The active latrōcinō occurs once, in the Historia Augusta.[6][5][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de