reformator

Forms

refōrmātor m (genitive refōrmātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin refōrmō + -tor, an agent noun from the verb meaning “to reshape, remould”.^[2][1][3] The verb is re- with fōrmō (“to shape”), from fōrma (“form, shape”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author to use it is Pliny the Younger, who praises Titinius Capito as litterarum iam senescentium reductor ac reformator, “one who brings back and renews literary studies that were growing old”.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

Tertullian called Augustus the reformator of the empire, and set Moses, who once shaped the people, beside Elijah, who would one day renew it.^[4] Augustine used it in a moral sense, of one who reforms people for the better.^[6]

In Medieval Latin the reformer could be an official: Du Cange records the reformator as a judge whom the French king sent into the provinces outside the ordinary courts, in letters of King John of 1351.^[7] In British sources it named, among other things, an ecclesiastical visitor who amended abuses, a restorer of peace, and God as the renewer of all things.^[8] German took it over as Reformator.^[9]

Timeline

• 97–113 AD – Pliny the Younger calls a friend the renewer of literary studies.^[2][5][4]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian calls Augustus the reformator of the empire.^[4][9]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in a moral sense.^[6][9]
• 1351 – Letters of King John of France name the royal reformatores sent into the provinces.^[7]
• 1490 – An archbishop of Canterbury is styled visitor, inquisitor and reformator.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who remoulds or reshapes, a transformer; a reformer, renewer.^[2][5][1]
2. (Late Latin) A restorer, one who renews (of God, among others).^[4][8][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) A royal judge sent into the provinces outside the ordinary courts.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) An ecclesiastical visitor who corrects abuses.^[8]

Related words

• refōrmō
• refōrmātiō
• fōrma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson