speculator

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin speculātor (“a spy, explorer, investigator”).

Noun

speculator (plural speculators)

1. One who speculates; an observer; a contemplator.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Thomas Browne to this entry?)

2. One who forms theories; a theorist.
   • 1666, Joseph Glanvill, Philosophical Considerations concerning Witches and Witchcraft:

     […] in things of Fact, the People are as much to be believed, as the most subtle Philosophers and Speculators, since here sense is the Judge.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second:

     For, in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, a speculator who had dared to affirm that the human soul is by its nature mortal, and does, in the great majority of cases, actually die with the body, would have been burned alive in Smithfield.

3. (business, finance) One who speculates; as in investing, one who is willing to take volatile risks upon invested principle for the potential of substantial returns.
4. (rugby) Synonym of field goal

Related terms

• speculate
• speculation
• speculative

Translations

one who speculates; as in investing

• Czech: spekulant m
• Dutch: speculant (nl) m
• Finnish: keinottelija (fi)
• French: spéculateur (fr) m, agioteur (fr) m
• German: Spekulant (de) m, Spekulantin (de) f
• Irish: amhantraí m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: spekulant (pl) m
• Portuguese: especulador (pt) m
• Russian: спекуля́нт (ru) m (spekuljánt), спекуля́нтка (ru) f (spekuljántka)
• Spanish: especulador m
• Swedish: spekulant (sv) c

See also

• entrepreneur
• gambler
• punter

Anagrams

• copulaters, outparcels, outplacers, peculators

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /spe.kuˈlaː.tor/, [s̠pɛkʊˈɫ̪äːt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /spe.kuˈla.tor/, [spekuˈläːt̪or]

Noun

speculātor m (genitive speculātōris); third declension

1. spy, scout
   1. a particular scout of the Imperial legion’s commander or of a province’s governor also competent to carry out executions
2. explorer, investigator

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	speculātor	speculātōrēs
Genitive	speculātōris	speculātōrum
Dative	speculātōrī	speculātōribus
Accusative	speculātōrem	speculātōrēs
Ablative	speculātōre	speculātōribus
Vocative	speculātor	speculātōrēs

Descendants

• → Catalan: especulador
• → English: speculator
• → French: spéculateur
• → Byzantine Greek: σπεκουλάτωρ (spekoulátōr)
  • → Aramaic::

    Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: אספקלטור (/⁠*ʾespuqlāṭōr⁠/)

    Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ܐܣܦܩܘܠܛܘܪ (/⁠*ʾespuqlāṭōr⁠/)

    Classical Syriac: ܐܷܣܦܽܘܩܠܴܛܪܐ (ʾespuqlāṭrā)

    Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אִסְפַּקְלָטוֺרָא (ʾispaqlāṭōrā)

• → Gothic: 𐍃𐍀𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌰𐍄𐌿𐍂 (spaikulatur)

• → Italian: speculatore
• → Portuguese: especulador
• → Romanian: speculator
• → Spanish: especulador

Verb

(deprecated template usage) speculātor

1. second-person singular future active imperative of speculor
2. third-person singular future active imperative of speculor

References

• “speculator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “speculator”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• speculator in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• speculator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “speculator”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers