viator

Forms

viātor m (genitive viātōris, feminine viātrīx); third declension^[1] An inscription spells it veator.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin via (“road”) + -tor,^[2] or by Wiktionary's analysis from the verb viō (“to travel”), itself from via.^[1] De Vaan traces via to Proto-Italic *wijā- (“road”) and Proto-Indo-European *uih₁-eh₂- (“pursuit”), from the root of vīs (“you want”), “to strive after”.^[3] Cognate with Oscan víú (“road”), Umbrian via (“road”), Sanskrit वीत (vītá-, “turned to”), Ancient Greek ἵεμαι (híemai, “to strive after”) and Lithuanian výti (“to drive, pursue”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who has the traveller and the robber in the Pro Milone: sometimes the traveller is killed by the robber, sometimes the robber by the traveller.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides a traveller or wayfarer in general,^[2][5] it was a title of Mercury as protector of travellers in an inscription.^[2] In Roman administration it named an attendant who ran official errands for magistrates and other officers, especially summoning people, as in Cicero, Livy and Pliny; such attendants formed the decuria viatorum, which Petronius mentions.^[2][5][1] In Church Latin it keeps the sense traveller, wayfarer,^[6] and it is common in medieval texts.^[4] Viator was also a Roman cognomen.^[1]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the traveller and of a magistrate's attendant.^[2][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of travellers.^[2][5][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of the attendants who summoned people.^[2][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius of the decuria viatorum.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A traveller, wayfarer.^[2][5][6]
2. A title of Mercury as protector of travellers.^[2]
3. An attendant employed on official errands by magistrates, a summoner, messenger.^[2][5][1]

Related words

• via

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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 d e f 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson