recitator

Forms

recitātor m (genitive recitātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin recitō (“to read aloud”) + -tor.^[2][3][4] That verb is formed with re- from citō² (“to set in motion, summon”), which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of cieō (“to move, stir up”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero,^[4][3] in court: the author of a law, he argues in De inventione, meant the judges to be interpreters of his intention, not mere readers of his text.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In legal use it was the person who read out documents, laws and testimony in a trial, and Cicero mentions three such readers being called in.^[6][3] From the Augustan period it also meant a reciter of literary works:^[6] Horace pictures a harsh reciter who puts learned and unlearned alike to flight, and Seneca and Pliny the Younger use it of readings at literary gatherings.^[2][6] Medieval British writers used it for one who recites, reads aloud or declaims.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of readers of documents in court.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a reciter of poetry.^[2][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of literary recitations.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A reader of documents in a court of law.^[2][6]
2. A reciter of literary works.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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