Etymologically
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stipator

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [stiːˈpaː.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [stiˈpaː.tor][1]

Forms

stīpātor m (genitive stīpātōris); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin stīpō (“to crowd, press together”) + -tor.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces stīpō to Proto-Italic *stei/īpo- and Proto-Indo-European *steip-o- (“stiff, erect”).[3] Cognate with Lithuanian stìpti (“to stiffen”) and Old English stīf (“stiff”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro and Köbler from Cicero.[3][4] Varro explains latrōnēs as those who were at the king's side, ab latere, and were later called stīpātōrēs.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is one of the train surrounding a king or a powerful man, a bodyguard or close attendant, mostly in the plural.[2][5] Lewis & Short note that the Romans used it in a bad sense, like satelles.[5] Döderlein distinguishes satelles, a hired attendant, from stīpātor, a guard, quoting Cicero's speech on the agrarian law, where two hundred men are appointed as bodyguards, stipatores corporis, who are also the agents and attendants of power.[6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro, on the name of the king's attendants.[5][3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of bodyguards.[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An attendant of a king or great man; in the plural, a retinue, bodyguard.[2][5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper