Etymologically
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receptor

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Forms

receptor m (genitive receptōris); third declension[1][2] The grammarian Charisius gives the feminine receptrīx.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin recipiō (“to take back, receive”) + -tor.[1][3][4] Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with praeceptor.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cicero.[3][5] In Pro Milone he calls a place itself a hider and harbourer of robbers.[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is mostly someone who takes in and hides people or goods that should not be sheltered:[1][3] Tacitus speaks of a receiver of plunder,[2][4] and the jurists of the harbourers of thieves and cattle rustlers, who, as the Digest says, are no less guilty than the robbers themselves.[2][4]

Later it was used in a good sense: Ambrose has it for a host,[2][4] and Prudentius for one who frees citizens from slavery.[2][4] In the Historia Augusta and in Eutropius the emperor Aurelian is the recoverer of the East.[2][4][6] In Medieval Latin it was a tax collector or treasurer,[7] and in British sources a receiver of a grant or inheritance and an officer who collected money, taxes or goods, the receptor generalis being a receiver-general.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero calls a place a harbourer of robbers.[2][3][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a receiver of plunder.[2][4][5]
  • c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it in a good sense, of a host.[2][4][5]
  • 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it of a deliverer from slavery.[2][4][5]
  • c. 370 AD – Eutropius calls Aurelian the recoverer of the East.[2][4][5]
  • 533 AD – The Digest uses it of the harbourers of thieves.[2][5]
  • 1205 – The Close Rolls record the appointment of receivers of the revenues of the archbishopric of Canterbury.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. One who harbours or hides criminals or stolen goods, a receiver;[1][2][4] also of a place that does so.[2][3]
  2. (Late Latin) One who receives kindly, a host; a deliverer.[2][4]
  3. (Late Latin) A recoverer, reconqueror.[2][4][6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A tax collector, treasurer; a receiver of money or goods;[7][8] receptor generalis, a receiver-general.[7][8]
  5. (Medieval Latin) The receiver of a grant or inheritance.[8][9]

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 m n o p q Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 l m n Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e 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
  9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson