negotior

Forms

negōtior (present infinitive negōtiārī, perfect active negōtiātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin negōtium (“business”) + -or.^[2][3][1] De Vaan reports Benveniste's view that negōtium was a compound of nec (“not”) and ōtium (“leisure”) from the start, perhaps a calque of Ancient Greek ἀσχολία (askholía, “lack of leisure, occupation”); ōtium itself has no etymology.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first, of Roman citizens doing business at Lampsacus.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to carry on business, especially wholesale trade or banking: Cicero says a man went to Syracuse for leisure, not for business, and writes of a Curius who did business at Patrae.^[6][2] The present participle is used as a noun, negōtiāns, a trader or businessman.^[2] The jurist Callistratus uses it transitively, of acquiring goods by trade.^[2] In Church Latin it is to trade or make a profit.^[7] English negotiate, from its participle, appeared in the 1590s.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Romans doing business in the provinces.^[2][5]
• 1590s – English negotiate is formed from it.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To do business, trade; to act as a banker.^[2][6][7][1]
2. To acquire by trade.^[2]

Word family

• negōtiātiō
• negōtiātor
• negōtiātrix

Related words

• negōtiālis
• negōtiāns
• negōtiolum
• negōtiōsus
• negōtium

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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com