scrutor

Forms

scrūtor (present infinitive scrūtārī or scrūtārier, perfect active scrūtātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] The perfect participle is sometimes passive, as in Valerius Maximus and Seneca.^[2]

Etymology

It seems to be formed from scrūta (“junk, rags”) with the verbal suffix -ō, its first sense being “to sort rags”.^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs ⟨scrūta⟩ as Proto-Italic *skrout-, whose further origin is uncertain; he rejects a borrowing from Ancient Greek γρύτη (grútē, “frippery”) and compares Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌷𐍂𐌿𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌽 (andhruskan, “to research”) and Old High German scrutōn (“to investigate”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Ennius: “no one looks at what is before his feet; they search the regions of the sky”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to probe a place for something hidden, to search a person, as in Plautus' Aulularia, “show me your right hand … now the left”, or a body for plunder, and to scan searchingly, Horace even has “to stir the fire with a sword”.^[2] It is to investigate a subject, as Cicero's books of the augurs he does not pry into, and to search out something hidden, as Lucretius' birds that can find nothing in Tityos' breast.^[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “search, examine, investigate, scrutinize”.^[6] The derived scrūtinium gave English scrutiny.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of searching the sky.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of searching a person.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of searching out something hidden.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of investigating.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To search, probe (for something hidden); to search (a person); to scan.^[2][1]
2. To investigate, inquire into.^[2][1][6]
3. To search out.^[2][1]

Word family

• īnscrūtābilis
• inscrūtor
• perscrūtor
• scrūtātiō
• scrūtātor
• scrūtātrīx
• scrūtinium

Related words

• scrūta
• English scrutiny

Usage notes

Döderlein says that quaerō is seeking in general, while scrūtārī, rīmārī, investīgāre and indāgāre add the notion of taking pains, scrūtārī is to search through everything.^[8]

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 j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper