portitor

portitor¹ customs officer

Forms

portitor m (genitive portitōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The customs officer is probably from portus “harbour” with the agent suffix -tor, like ⟨holitor⟩ from ⟨holus⟩.^[2][3][4][5] De Vaan traces ⟨portus⟩ to Proto-Indo-European *pr̥-tó- (“passed, crossed”) or ⟨*port-o-⟩ “passage”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citations are from Plautus.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It was a collector of harbour dues and tolls, a customs officer, as in Plautus and Cicero.^[2][5] The OLD puts here Virgil's use of the word for Charon, apparently as the collector of the underworld's toll.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it.^[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A toll collector, customs officer.^[2]

Word family

• portitōrius

portitor² carrier, ferryman

Forms

portitor m (genitive portitōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The carrier is from portō “to carry”.^[4][5][1] The Thesaurus thinks these senses grew from the first word under the influence of ⟨portāre⟩ and ⟨porta⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's earliest source is Virgil, whom he dates 70–19 BC.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It was a carrier, bearer, and especially one who carries people by boat, a ferryman, boatman, as in Seneca; in poetry it was Charon, the ferryman of the dead, as in Propertius and Virgil's portitor Orcī.^[4][5] Lewis & Short call this sense poetic and post-Augustan.^[4]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it was a carrier, bearer, porter.^[8] Medieval Latin used it for a bearer of letters, a messenger.^[9] British Medieval Latin had a portitor from porta “gate”, a doorkeeper, which became the surname Porter.^[10]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Charon.^[4][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a boatman.^[4][7]
• 1086 – Domesday Book uses portitor “porter”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A carrier, bearer; a ferryman, and Charon.^[4][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A messenger; a porter, doorkeeper.^[9][10]

Related words

• portus
• portō
• porta
• portōrium

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b 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