Wiktionary

lictor

English edit

 
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Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

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.
    • 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 edit

Latin edit

Etymology edit

Possibly from the same root as ligō, ligāre, ligāvī, ligātus (“to bind”).[1] 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.[2] 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.[1]

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

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

  1. lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

Declension edit

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 edit

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

References edit

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “ligō”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 341
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 12.3: 'Lictoris' vocabulum qua ratione conceptum ortumque sit; et super eo diversae sententiae Valgi Rufi et Tulli Tironis. Valgius Rufus in secundo librorum, quos inscripsit de rebus per epistulam quaesitis, 'lictorem' dicit a 'ligando' appellatum esse, quod, cum magistratus populi Romani virgis quempiam verberari iussissent, crura eius et manus ligari vincirique a viatore solita sint, isque, qui ex conlegio viatorum officium ligandi haberet, 'lictor' sit appellatus; utiturque ad eam rem testimonio M. Tulli verbaque eius refert ex oratione, quae dicta est pro C. Rabirio: 'Lictor', inquit 'conliga manus.' Haec ita Valgius. Et nos sane cum illo sentimus; sed Tiro Tullius, M. Ciceronis libertus, 'lictorem' vel a 'limo' vel a 'licio' dictum scripsit: 'Licio enim transverso, quod "limum" appellatur, qui magistratibus' inquit 'praeministrabant, cincti erant.' Si quis autem est, qui propterea putat probabilius esse, quod Tiro dixit, quoniam prima syllaba in 'lictore', sicuti in 'licio', producta est et in eo verbo, quod est 'ligo', correpta est, nihil ad rem istuc pertinet. Nam sicut a 'ligando' 'lictor', et a 'legendo' 'lector' et a 'viendo' 'vitor' et 'tuendo' 'tutor' et 'struendo' 'structor' productis, quae corripiebantur, vocalibus dicta sunt.

Further reading edit

  • “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 edit

 
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Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Pronunciation edit

 
 

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

Noun edit

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 edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Noun edit

lictor m (plural lictori)

  1. lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

Declension edit

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 edit

 
Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia es

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

Noun edit

lictor m (plural lictores)

  1. lictor (an official in Ancient Rome)

Further reading edit

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