observator

Forms

observātor m (genitive observātōris); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin observō (“to watch, observe”) + -tor, an agent noun.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Seneca the Elder calls Messala a most careful observer of the Latin language (Latini sermonis observator diligentissimus).^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is perhaps not found before Augustus.^[2] In Seneca it is a watcher who keeps an eye on something: an observer and guardian of our bad and good deeds.^[2][4] Pliny the Younger uses it of a watcher who checks and corrects,^[2] and the Theodosian Code of one who keeps the Catholic law.^[2][5] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means an observer.^[6] It survives in Italian osservatore.^[5]

Timeline

• 37–41 AD – Seneca the Elder calls Messala a careful observer of Latin usage.^[4][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of an observer and guardian of our deeds.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who watches over or keeps an eye on something, an observer, watcher.^[1][2]
2. A careful student (of a language).^[5][4]
3. (Late Latin) One who keeps or observes (a law or religion).^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de