decoctor Latin · revision 34618

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la coquō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [deːˈkɔk.tɔr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [deˈkɔk.tor]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''dēcoctor''' ''m'' (genitive dēcoctōris); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|dēcoquō|-tor|t1=to boil down; to become insolvent]].^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary) The verb, a compound of [[m|la|dē-]] and [[m|la|coquō|t=to cook]],^(OLD 2012) was used of a debtor who could not pay.^(OLD 2012) [[m|la|coquō]] goes back to [[itc-pro|*kʷekʷe/o-]] and [[ine-pro|*pekʷ-e/o-|t=to cook]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ A Latin gloss explains the name by the way gold shrinks when it is boiled down: the debtor “boils down” the sum he owes.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL records it from Cicero and Catullus on.^(TLL) In the second speech against Catiline, Cicero describes an army gathered from rural ''decoctores'', men ruined by debt.^(TLL)^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the ''Philippics'' Cicero recalls the seats the Roscian law set apart for ''decoctores'', those who had lost their fortune through bad luck rather than their own fault.^(TLL) Catullus calls a woman “the mistress of the bankrupt of Formiae”.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Seneca uses it of a defaulter to whom no one would lend money.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Later it is used of squandering others' property, as in ''decoctor pecuniae publicae'' in the Theodosian Code, and in the ''Historia Augusta'' of men who had wasted their own goods.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Ennodius uses it once, figuratively, of something that burns up the vices by fire.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of insolvent men in the Catilinarians and the Philippics.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it as an insult.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a defaulting debtor.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * before 513 AD – Ennodius uses it of something that burns away.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|insolvent]] person, a defaulting [[m|en|debtor]], a [[m|en|bankrupt]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+ # ''(Late Latin)'' A [[m|en|spendthrift]], one who squanders his own or public property.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+ # ''(Late Latin)'' One who burns away (figurative, in Ennodius).^(TLL)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}