lictor

Forms

līctor m (genitive līctōris, feminine līctrīx); third declension^[1] Gellius says it was pronounced with a long i, līctor.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain; the OLD marks it doubtful.^[3] The TLL thinks it is formed on the root ⟨*lig-⟩ of ligō (“to bind”), as the ancients already held, and Etymonline renders it “binder”;^[4][5][1] de Vaan calls the link with ⟨ligō⟩ uncertain.^[6] Valgius, quoted by Gellius, who agrees, explained that when a magistrate ordered a man flogged his legs and hands were bound, and the attendant whose task was the binding was called ⟨lictor⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It is one of the attendants given in varying numbers to Roman magistrates and other persons of rank, a lictor, a sign of official dignity.^[3][2] Lewis and Short note that the Romans took the custom from the Etruscans, as in Livy's Romulus, who made himself more majestic by taking twelve lictors, and that the lictors carried the bundle of rods.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “lictor, special attendant”,^[8] and medieval Latin uses it for an executioner.^[9] English lictor was borrowed in the late 14th century.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of Romulus' twelve lictors.^[2][7]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lictor, an attendant of a Roman magistrate.^[3][2][1][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) An executioner.^[9]

Word family

• lictōrius

Related words

• ligō
• fascis
• virga
• English lictor

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill