raptor

Forms

raptor m (genitive raptōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rapiō (“to seize, snatch”) + -tor.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces rapiō to Proto-Italic *rap-i- (“to seize”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁rp-i- (“to seize”), comparing Ancient Greek ἐρέπτομαι (eréptomai, “to devour, snatch away”) and Lithuanian ap-rė́pti (“to take, catch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, of handing over the plunder and the plunderers, and of a boy's kidnapper.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is a robber or plunderer, and especially one who carries off a person by force, an abductor or ravisher;^[2][5] Lewis & Short find it only in poetry and post-Augustan prose.^[2][5] Mela applies it to a hunter or a beast of prey, and Pliny the Elder to someone who snatches something and rides away.^[2] Isidore distinguishes it from related words.^[3] The early medieval law codes use it of robbers and abductors, and Church Latin glosses it robber, plunderer, extortioner.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of plunderers and of a kidnapper.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a snatcher.^[2][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore defines it.^[3][6]
• late 14th century – English raptor is borrowed for a bird of prey; the sense of a ravisher follows about 1600.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A robber, plunderer; a beast or bird of prey.^[2][5][7][1]
2. One who snatches something and runs off.^[2]
3. An abductor, kidnapper, ravisher.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• raptrīx

Related words

• rapāx
• rapidus
• rapīna
• rapiō
• English raptor

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts it with praedō, the robber in general: raptor is the robber of a particular person or thing.^[9]

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 i j 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 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 c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper