lictor

English

Alternative forms

• lictour (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪktə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪktɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪktə(ɹ)

Noun

lictor (plural lictors)

1. An officer in ancient Rome, attendant on a consul or magistrate, who bore the fasces and was responsible for punishing criminals.
   • 1606, C[aius, i.e., Gaius] Suetonius Tranquillus, “The Historie of Caius Iulius Cesar Dictator”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of Twelve Cæsars Emperours of Rome. […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes and George Snowdon] for Matthew Lownes, →OCLC, section 20, page 8:

     Hee brought-in likevvise the ancient cuſtome againe, that in vvhat moneth hee had not the Knitches of rods vvith Axes borne before him, a publique Officer called Accensvs ſhould huiſher him before, and the Serjeants or Lictours follovv after behinde.

   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 276:

     “Regard not that, my brother,” answered Magdalen Græme; “the first successors of Saint Peter himself, were elected not in sunshine but in tempests—not in the halls of the Vatican, but in the subterranean vaults and dungeons of Heathen Rome—they were not gratulated with shouts and salvos of cannon-shot and of musquetry, and the display of artificial fire—no, my brother—but by the hoarse summons of Lictors and Prætors, who came to drag the Fathers of the Church to martyrdom. […]”

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     ‘Beware the power of the mob, Caesar.’ Then, schooled in needful agility, he ran away before a lictor’s whip could reach him.

Translations

officer in ancient Rome

• Catalan: lictor m
• French: licteur (fr) m
• German: Liktor (de) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: ῥάβδουχος m (rhábdoukhos)

• Italian: littore (it) m
• Latin: līctor m
• Polish: liktor (pl) m
• Portuguese: lictor m
• Spanish: lictor m
• Swedish: liktor c

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [likˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [likˈtoɾ]

Noun

lictor m (plural lictors)

1. lictor (an official in Ancient Rome)

Further reading

• “lictor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “lictor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “lictor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “lictor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Latin

Etymology

Possibly from the same root as ligō, ligāre, ligāvī, ligātus (“to bind”). In this case, the reference might be to the fascis symbol and their role as a magistrates' attaché; see also ligation and liaison. The long vowel would be the result of Lachmann's law, as in āctor from agō. Aulus Gellius writes that Valgius Rufus derived līctor from ligandō, whereas Tiro Tullius, a freedman of Cicero, derived it from līcium. The same root has been dubiously connected to religiō. On the basis of the Albanian lidh (“to bind, tie”), the root is reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ-, although the lack of other certain cognates makes it uncertain.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈliːk.tor/, [ˈlʲiːkt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈlik.tor/, [ˈlikt̪or]
• Gellius states that the vowel in the first syllable is long.

Noun

līctor m (genitive līctōris, feminine līctrīx); third declension

1. lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	līctor	līctōrēs
Genitive	līctōris	līctōrum
Dative	līctōrī	līctōribus
Accusative	līctōrem	līctōrēs
Ablative	līctōre	līctōribus
Vocative	līctor	līctōrēs

Descendants

• English: lictor
• French: licteur
• Italian: littore
• Polish: liktor
• Spanish: lictor

Further reading

• “lictor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lictor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lictor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the lictors clear the way: lictores summovent turbam (Liv. 4. 50)
    
• “lictor”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “lictor”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /likˈtoʁ/ [likˈtoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /likˈtoʁ/ [likˈtoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /likˈtoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /likˈtoʁ/ [likˈtoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /likˈtoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /liˈktoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /liˈktoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /liˈkto.ɾi/

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -oʁ, (Portugal) -oɾ
• Hyphenation: lic‧tor

Noun

lictor m (plural lictores)

1. (history) lictor (An official, carrying a hatchet wrapped in a bundle of sticks, who preceded the consuls or the dictator, in ancient Rome.)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Noun

lictor m (plural lictori)

1. lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

Declension

Declension of lictor

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) lictor	lictorul	(niște) lictori	lictorii
genitive/dative	(unui) lictor	lictorului	(unor) lictori	lictorilor
vocative	lictorule		lictorilor

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Noun

lictor m (plural lictores)

1. lictor (an official in Ancient Rome)

Further reading

• “lictor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014