Etymologically
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negotior

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [nɛˈɡoː.ti.ɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [neˈɡɔt.t͡si.or][1]

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

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