machinator

Forms

māchinātor m (genitive māchinātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin māchinor (“to contrive”) + -tor.^[2][3][4] māchinor is from māchina (“machine”), which was borrowed from Ancient Greek μαχανά (mākhanā́), the Doric form of μηχανή (mēkhanḗ).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[5] who uses it of the contriver of a crime, calling one man the architect and contriver of everything, omnium architectum et machinatorem.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant one who devises or builds machines, an engineer: Livy calls Archimedes an inventor and builder of engines of war, and Seneca speaks of engineers who devise stages that rise by themselves.^[2][3][4] It also meant a contriver of plots or other events.^[2]

In Medieval Latin from Britain it was used of a machinist or engineer in royal service, and of a deviser or schemer, usually in a bad sense;^[6] Bede speaks of contrivers of slander.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the contriver of a crime.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy calls Archimedes a builder of war engines.^[2][3][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of stage engineers.^[3][4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who devises or builds machines, an engineer.^[2][3][1][6]
2. A contriver of plots or events, a schemer.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d 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