scriptor

Forms

scrīptor m (genitive scrīptōris, feminine scrīptrīx); third declension^[1] It is also spelled scrībtor.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin scrībō (“to write”) + -tor.^[2][3][4] De Vaan derives ⟨scrībō⟩ from Proto-Italic *skreif-e/o- (“to carve”) and Proto-Indo-European *skreibʰ-e/o- (“to carve”), so writing was first carving.^[5] Cognate with Oscan scriftas (“written”) and Umbrian screhto (“written”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD give Lucilius as its first author, of a writer of literature.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It is a person who writes, as the writer of a graffito in an inscription, and a scribe or copyist, as Cicero's mention of Crassus' scribe and reader Diphilus.^[2][3] It is the drafter of a document or law, whose intention Cicero says should be weighed against its letter.^[2] Above all it is a writer of literature, as Horace's “writer of satyr plays”, and the historian of a subject, as Cicero's many historians of his deeds that Alexander took with him.^[2][3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “writer, composer, narrator”.^[6] In Medieval Latin it is a scribe or public scrivener, and a writer.^[7] British sources use it of a weary scribe in Alcuin and of royal, papal and town scribes.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a writer.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a scribe, a drafter and historians.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a writer of satyr plays.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scribe, copyist, secretary;^[2][3][1][7] (Medieval Latin) a notary.^[7][8]
2. The drafter (of a document, law).^[2]
3. A writer, author; a historian (of something).^{[2][3][1][6][7]}

Word family

• contrāscriptor
• scrīptrīx

Related words

• scrība
• scrīptiō
• scrīptitō
• scrīptōrium
• scrīptōrius
• scrībō
• scrīptūra
• librārius

References

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