senatorius

Forms

senātōrius (feminine senātōria, neuter senātōrium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from senātor (“senator”) with the suffix -ius.^[2][1] ⟨Senātor⟩ belongs to senātus (“senate”) and ultimately to senex (“old man”),^[1][3] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *seno- (“old”) and Proto-Indo-European *sen-o- (“old”), cognate with Old Irish sen (“old”), Sanskrit सन (sána-, “old”) and Lithuanian sẽnas (“old”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author,^[3] who speaks of a man whose age was far from “senatorial rank” (senātōrius gradus).^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is “of or proper to a senator”, as the ōrdō senātōrius, the senatorial order, in Cicero, Caesar and Sallust.^[2][5] The masculine is used as a noun for a man of senatorial rank, as in the letters to Caesar ascribed to Sallust: “nobles with a few senators did whatever they pleased”.^[2][3]

In Church Latin the masculine noun is a senator and the neuter a reserved section.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of senatorial rank.^[5][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of the senatorial order.^[5][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a senator, senatorial, ōrdō senātōrius, the senatorial order.^[2][1][5]

Noun

1. (masculine) A man of senatorial rank.^[2][6]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin, neuter) A reserved section.^[6]

Related words

• senātor
• senātrīx
• senātus
• senex
• English senatorial

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson