Etymologically
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servator

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Forms

servātor m (genitive servātōris, feminine servātrīx); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin servō (“to save, keep, watch”) + -tor.[2][1][3] De Vaan reports Rix's view that the verb comes from an older noun “observation, heed”, going back to Proto-Italic *serwā- (“observation”) and Proto-Indo-European *ser-u-o- (“guardian”), the source also of servus, first “guard, shepherd”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has a character, asked whether he is a poisoner, call himself rather a saviour of men.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that preserver, deliverer, saviour is its prevailing sense: Cicero calls a man the saviour of the state, as against its destroyer, and the saviour of his own life;[5][2] Livy has crowds hail a general as saviour and liberator;[5][2] Lucretius calls the white goose the saviour of the citadel.[5][2] Like Greek Sōtēr, it is an epithet of Jupiter.[5] It is also a watcher or observer, as Lucan's observer of the silent heavens, and one who keeps a rule, as Lucan's keeper of stern virtue.[2][5] In Church Latin Servātor is the Saviour.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, saviour of men.[2][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the goose that saved the citadel.[5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, saviour of the state.[5]
  • 39–65 AD – Lucan of an observer of the heavens.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A saviour, preserver, deliverer;[2][5][1] an epithet of Jupiter.[5]
  2. A watcher, observer; a guard.[2][5][1]
  3. One who keeps (a rule or duty).[2][5]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Saviour.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b 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 f g h i j k l m 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