obsessor Latin · revision 34609

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la sedeō}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''obsessor''' ''m'' (genitive obsessōris); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|obsideō|-tor|t1=to sit at; to besiege]],^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) also spelled ⟨ops-⟩.^(OLD 2012) The verb is a compound of [[m|la|ob-]] and [[m|la|sedeō|t=to sit]],^(de Vaan 2008) which goes back to [[itc-pro|*sed-ē-]] and [[ine-pro|*sed-eh₁-|t=to be seated]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found in Plautus' ''Pseudolus'', with a genitive: ''fui hodie solus obsessor fori'', “I alone have haunted the forum today”.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The early sense is one who occupies or haunts a place: Ovid calls a water snake ''obsessor'' of living waters.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Lewis and Short find it only in early Latin and poetry.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In military use it means a besieger: Cicero has ''obsessor curiae'', Livy the besieger of Luceria, and Tacitus writes that a fire brought more fear to the besieged than to the besiegers.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of someone haunting the forum.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of besieging the senate house.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a snake haunting a spring.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of besiegers.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # One who occupies or [[m|en|haunt|alt=haunts]] (a place), a frequenter.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A [[m|en|besieger]], blockader.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}