natator Latin · revision 36520

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=116–27 BC, Varro|origins=la nō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

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

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

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''natātor''' ''m'' (genitive natātōris); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|natō|-tor|t1=to swim]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan explains that verb as built on an old participle of [[m|la|nō|t=to swim]], which goes back to [[itc-pro|*(s)nāje/o-|t=to swim]] and [[ine-pro|*(s)neh₂-|t=to swim, float]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ Varro already named it among nouns taken from a pursuit, beside ⟨cursor⟩ “runner” and ⟨pugil⟩ “boxer”.^(TLL)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and the TLL find it first in Varro,^(de Vaan 2008)^(TLL) in his list of words for people named after what they do.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Ovid writes ''pugnat in adversās īre natātor aquās'', “the swimmer struggles to go against the current”,^(Lewis & Short 1879) and in his ''Heroides'' Leander tells Hero that he seems a swimmer coming to her and a shipwrecked man going back.^(TLL)^(Conte 2010) Statius uses it too,^(Lewis & Short 1879) and Sidonius Apollinaris pictures an African swimmer, one of Hannibal's soldiers.^(TLL) A feminine ''natātrīx'' appears in a Late Latin translation of John Chrysostom, and the glossaries explain it by Greek [[m|grc|κολυμβητής|tr=kolumbētḗs]].^(TLL)

+

+ British medieval writers kept it: Peter of Blois says that a swimmer undresses to cross a river.^(DMLBS) The TLL lists Romance descendants such as Romanian [[m|ro|înotător]] and Italian [[m|it|nuotatore]], and thinks the Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese [[m|es|nadador]] may be re-formations.^(TLL)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro names it among words for people named after what they do.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a swimmer against the current.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris writes of an African swimmer.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|swimmer]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[natātōrius]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[natō]]

+ * [[nō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}