Etymologically
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populator

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Forms

populātor m (genitive populātōris); third declension[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin populor (“to ravage, plunder”) + -tor.[1][3] The verb is a derivative of populus1 (“people”); de Vaan thinks the sense “to devastate” grew out of the use “to have an army pass through”, since the noun goes back to Proto-Italic *poplo- (“army”), whose further origin is unknown.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short think it is perhaps not found before the Augustan age;[2] it appears in Livy, of ravagers of the fields,[2][5] and in Ovid,[2][6] meaning a plunderer or ravager.[1]

Semantic evolution

Poets extended it to animals and natural forces: Martial calls a boar the ravager of the Tuscan acorn, and Valerius Flaccus calls Sirius the ravager of the Calabrian field.[2][7] Figuratively it meant a destroyer or consumer, as in Claudian's “luxury, the waster of wealth” and in a declamation attributed to Quintilian, where it is paired with a word for the overthrower of a city.[2][7] Lucan and Claudian use it in the plural of enemies who lay fields waste.[8]

British Medieval Latin kept the classical sense, with figurative uses, from Tatwine's riddles on;[9] Niermeyer records a medieval sense “settler”, a colonist.[10]

Timeline

  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of ravagers of the fields.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a destroyer of Troy.[2][6]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of a boar.[2][6]
  • 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it of enemies laying fields waste.[8][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A plunderer, ravager, spoiler.[1][2]
  2. (poetic) An animal or natural force that lays waste.[2][7]
  3. (figurative) A destroyer, waster.[2][7]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A settler, colonist.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  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. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill