arbiter

English

Etymology

Old French arbitre, from Latin arbiter (“a witness, judge, literally one who goes to see”), from ar- for ad- (“to”) + betere (“to come”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɑːbɪtə(r)/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

arbiter (plural arbiters)

1. A person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them; an arbitrator.
   • 1931, William Bennett Munro, The government of the United States, national, state, and local, page 495

     In order to protect individual liberty there must be an arbiter between the governing powers and the governed.

2. (with of) A person or object having the power of judging and determining, or ordaining, without control; one whose power of deciding and governing is not limited.

   Television and film, not Vogue and similar magazines, are the arbiters of fashion.

Related terms

arbitrable arbitrage arbitrary arbitrate

arbitration arbitrator arbitress

Translations

a person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them

• Bulgarian: арбитър (bg) (arbítar) m 
• Finnish: välittäjä (fi), sovittelija (fi)
• French: arbitre (fr) m

• German: Schlichter (de) m, Schiedsrichter (de) m
• Russian: арбитр (ru) (arbítr) m 
• Spanish: árbitro (es) m, árbitra (es) f

judge without control

• Bulgarian: господар (bg) (gospodar), повелител (bg) (povelitel)
• French: arbitre (fr) m
• German: Gebieter (+über) m, Herr (+über) m

• Russian: повелитель (ru) (povelítelʹ) m , повелительница (ru) (povelítelʹnica) f , властелин (ru) (vlastelín) m , владыка (ru) (vladýka) m and f , властитель (ru) (vlastítelʹ) m , властительница (ru) (vlastítelʹnica) f 

Verb

arbiter (third-person singular simple present arbiters, present participle arbitering, simple past and past participle arbitered)

1. (transitive) To act as arbiter.
   • 2003, Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong: Why We Love France But Not the French, page 116

     Worse, since there was no institution to arbiter disagreements between Parliament and the government, whenever Parliament voted against the government on the smallest issues, coalitions fragmented, and governments had to be recomposed.

External links

• arbiter in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• arbiter in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• rarebit

---

Latin

Noun

arbiter (genitive arbitrī); m, second declension

1. witness, spectator, beholder, listener
2. judge, arbitrator
3. master, lord, ruler
4. vocative singular of arbiter

Inflection

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	arbiter	arbitrī
genitive	arbitrī	arbitrōrum
dative	arbitrō	arbitrīs
accusative	arbitrum	arbitrōs
ablative	arbitrō	arbitrīs
vocative	arbiter 1	arbitrī

¹ May also be arbitre.

Descendants

• Russian: арби́тр (arbítr) m