venatorius

Forms

vēnātōrius (feminine vēnātōria, neuter vēnātōrium); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin vēnor (“to hunt”) + -tōrius.^[1] Lewis & Short and Georges place it with vēnātor (“hunter”).^[2][3] De Vaan takes vēnor to be a denominative verb from a noun or adjective for hunting, which goes back to Proto-Italic *wēn-o/ā- (“hunting”) and the root of Proto-Indo-European *(H)uēnh₁- (“desire”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cornelius Nepos uses it, in his life of Datames, of a hunting helmet (galea venatoria).^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

It describes the gear and dress of hunters: a hunting helmet in Nepos, a hunting knife in Suetonius, hunting equipment in Pliny the Younger.^[2][3] It was also used of the hunters who fought wild animals in the arena: Ulpian writes of those condemned to the hunters' school, and an inscription names a familia venatoria.^[1] In Tertullian the masculine stands alone as a noun for an arena hunter.^[5] The word passed into Italian as venatorio.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 100–24 BC – Cornelius Nepos mentions a hunting helmet.^[2][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses the adjective.^[5][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius speaks of a hunting knife.^[2][3][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it as a noun for a hunter in the arena.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or used by hunters, of hunting.^[1][2]
2. Of those who hunt animals in the arena.^[1]
3. (as a noun) A hunter in the arena.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de