Etymologically
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venator

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [weːˈnaː.tɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [veˈnaː.tor][1]

Forms

vēnātor m (genitive vēnātōris, feminine vēnātrīx); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vēnor (“to hunt”) + -tor.[2][1][3] De Vaan takes that verb as a denominative from a noun or adjective going back to Proto-Italic *wēn-o/ā- (“hunting”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *(H)uēnh₁- (“desire”), and compares Sanskrit वनते (vánate, “to love, desire”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][3] where a man is told that, like a hunter, he spends days and nights with his dog.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is one who pursues wild animals, a hunter: Cicero, Caesar and Horace use it, and inscriptions record a guild of hunters.[2][5] Juvenal uses it of one who hunts beasts in the arena, spearing Numidian bears at Alba.[2] Church Latin glosses it hunter and fighter with wild animals in the arena.[6] In Medieval Latin it is the master of the hunt, a dignitary of the royal court.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, like a hunter with his dog.[5][4][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero.[5]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of a hunter in the arena.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hunter.[2][5][1][6]
  2. One who hunts beasts in the arena.[2][6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) The master of the hunt, a court dignitary.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c 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
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill