narrator

Forms

narrātor m (genitive narrātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin narrō + -tor, the agent noun of the verb meaning “to tell, relate”.^[2][3][4] The verb narrō is a Proto-Italic formation from the adjective seen in gnārus “knowing”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first.^[3][4] In De oratore he says that the early Roman historians before Antipater “were not embellishers of events but only narrators” (non exornatores rerum, sed tantummodo narratores).^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is rare: the TLL finds it in Cicero, in the poetry of Silius and in Quintilian, and then from Symmachus on, with 27 instances in Augustine.^[3] It was used of storytellers, of historians and of the writers of Scripture.^[3][7]

In Medieval Latin it also meant a tale-bearer or slanderer,^[8] and in law the pleader who spoke a party's count in court: in England the serjeant-at-law (narrator de banco),^[8] elsewhere an advocate or barrister.^[9] English borrowed the word from Latin in the 1610s.^[10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero contrasts mere narrators of events with historians who adorn them.^[3][6][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian speaks of a man eloquent in telling his own affairs.^[7][6][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it 27 times, also of the narrator of Scripture.^[3][4]
• 1220 – An English court record uses it of a pleader in a lawsuit.^[8]
• 1279 – English letters patent use it of tale-bearers.^[8]
• 1610s – English borrows it as narrator.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who tells or relates something, a narrator; a historian or chronicler.^[2][7][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) A tale-bearer, slanderer.^[8]
3. (Medieval Latin, law) A pleader or advocate; in England, a serjeant-at-law.^[8][9]

Related words

• narrativus
• narratus
• English narrator

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f 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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com