simulator

Forms

simulātor m (genitive simulātōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin simulō (“to imitate, pretend”) + -tor,^[2][1][3] an agent noun of the verb.^[2] De Vaan derives simulō from similis (“like, similar”),^[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *semali- (“alike, together”) and Proto-Indo-European *smh₂-el-i-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the 1st century BC in the sense “pretender”:^[2] Sallust describes a bold, crafty mind as the simulator ac dissimulator of whatever it pleased, one who feigns and conceals,^[2][5] and Cicero gives it as the Latin for Ancient Greek εἴρων (eírōn), one who feigns ignorance.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call the pretender the classical sense.^[6] Tacitus has simulator segnitiae, a man who feigned idleness, and Ovid says that a lover who pretends often ends up loving in earnest.^[2] The sense “imitator, copier” is poetic and rare:^[6] Ovid calls Morpheus the craftsman and imitator of human shape,^[2][6] and Claudian calls the ape an imitator of the human face.^[6][5]

In medieval Latin it stayed the word for a feigner or trickster, and Alcuin glosses the Greek hypocrita as simulator in Latin.^[7] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for a hypocrite.^[8] The Romance languages borrowed it: French simulateur, Italian simulatore, Spanish simulador.^[1]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of a mind that feigns and conceals at will.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero renders the Greek eírōn by it.^[2][5][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid calls Morpheus an imitator of shape.^[2][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus speaks of a man who feigned idleness.^[2][3]
• Medieval Latin – Alcuin equates it with the Greek hypocrita.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who copies or imitates, an imitator.^[2][6]
2. One who puts on a pretence, a feigner, pretender; with a genitive, one who feigns something.^[2][6]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A hypocrite.^[8][7]

Related words

• simulō
• simulātiō
• dissimulātor
• similis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c 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
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson