redemptor

Forms

redēmptor m (genitive redēmptōris, feminine redēmptrīx); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin redimō (“to buy back; contract for”) + -tor.^[2][1][3] redimō is a compound of red- and emō (“to buy, take”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *eme/o- (“to take”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁em-e/o- (“to take”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato uses it first,^[5] in De agri cultura of damage done to the owner by a contractor's work.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that in all periods it is a contractor, one who undertakes work by contract:^[6] Cicero tells of a contractor who had undertaken to build a column, Livy and Horace use it so, and Pliny the Elder speaks of the contractor for the upkeep of the Capitol.^[6] It is also one who farms a bridge's tolls or other revenues.^[6] In law it is one who buys up the rights in a lawsuit,^[2][6] and one who frees a debtor by paying his creditor;^[6] Calpurnius' declamations use it of a ransomer.^[2] In Church Latin it is the Redeemer, Christ, who ransoms the world from sin, in Augustine, Jerome and the Vulgate (Job, Acts),^[6] and so in Medieval Latin.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of a contractor.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a contractor for a column.^[6]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian of one who buys up lawsuits.^[2]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate of the Redeemer.^[6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine of the Redeemer.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A contractor, one who undertakes work or a public service by contract; a farmer of revenues.^[2][6][1]
2. (law) One who buys up the rights in a lawsuit; one who pays a debtor's creditor.^[2][6]
3. A ransomer.^[2][1]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Redeemer, Christ; a rescuer, saviour.^[6][7][8][1]

Related words

• redimō
• redēmptiō
• emō
• conductor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson