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opitulor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word opitulor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 280/260–before 200 BC, Livius Andronicus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*h₃e/op-(i-))

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔˈpɪ.tʊ.ɫɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [oˈpiː.tu.lor][1]

Forms

opitulor (present infinitive opitulārī or opitulārier, perfect active opitulātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Livius Andronicus has the active imperative opitulā, and the active is found again in Gregory the Great.[2][3][4] Plautus and Pacuvius have the old infinitive opitulārier.[3]

Etymology

The OLD and the TLL derive it from opitulus, a cult title,[2][3][5] while Lewis & Short and Wiktionary analyse it as ops (“help, power”) joined to the root of tulī (“I carried”).[4][1] De Vaan traces ops to Proto-Italic *opi- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃e/op-(i-) (“ability, force”).[5] Cognate with Sanskrit अप्नस् (ápnas-, “possession, property”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus,[5] who has the active form in a tragedy: corrige, opitula, “set right, help”.[4]

Semantic evolution

It means to give help or assistance to someone, to bring relief, usually with a dative:[2] Plautus has someone going to help a lover and a friend helping a friend, Cicero helping the guilty, and Sallust relieving want.[4] Of things it is to be of service, especially of remedies:[2] the Rhetorica ad Herennium says that a shared way of life and speech was of no help to the people of Fregellae,[2] and Pliny the Elder has remedies that work against empty visions.[4] Döderlein groups it with auxilium ferre and opem ferre as help given to someone in a strait, to rescue them from need or danger.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus, in the active.[4][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of helping a lover and a friend.[4][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of helping the guilty.[4][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of remedies.[4][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To help, assist, bring relief to.[2][4][1]
  2. Of things: to be of service;[2] of remedies, to relieve.[2][4][1]
  • ops
  • opitulātiō
  • auxilior

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Opitulor.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/opitulor. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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