regnator

Forms

rēgnātor m (genitive rēgnātōris); third declension^[1] The TLL finds no plural, except in one restored passage.^[2] Charisius sets a feminine rēgnātrīx beside it.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin rēgnō (“to rule as king”) + -tor.^[3][2] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of rēx (“king”),^[4] which he traces to Proto-Italic *rēg- (“king”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃rēǵ-s (“ruler, king”).^[4] Cognate with Old Irish rí (“king”) and Sanskrit राज् (rā́j-, “king”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Naevius, who calls Neptune ruler of the seas, Neptunum regnatorem marum.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is one who rules as king, a lord;^[3] Lewis & Short call it poetic.^[5] It is often applied to gods: Plautus has the ruler of the gods, Virgil the ruler of high Olympus, and Seneca the ruler of the strait.^[3][5] Tacitus has the god who rules over all, regnator omnium deus.^[5] It is also used of persons and things supreme in their kind, as Virgil's Tiber, the horned river, ruler of the waters, and Statius' Pindar, ruler of the lyric band.^[3][5] Plautus uses it plainly of Agathocles, who was king in Sicily, and Martial of the owner of a small field.^[5] Donatus notes that a king is sometimes called regnator, sometimes dominus.^[2] In Church Latin it is a ruler or governor.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius, of Neptune.^[3][5][7]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of the ruler of the gods and of a king of Sicily.^[3][5][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of the ruler of Olympus and of the Tiber.^[3][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of the god who rules over all.^[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ruler, king, lord, sovereign;^[3][5][1][6] of gods, a ruler.^[3][5]
2. One supreme in his kind;^[3] an owner.^[5]

Related words

• rēgnō
• rēgnum
• rēx

References

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