tractator

English

WOTD – 28 November 2013, 28 November 2014

Etymology

From Latin tractātor (“manager, homilist”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɹækˈteɪ.tə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

tractator (plural tractators)

1. (historical) In medieval commerce, the person who handles or transports merchandise on behalf of an investor; an entrepreneur.
   • 1987, John H. Pryor, Commerce, Shipping and Naval Warfare in the Medieval Mediterranean, page 172:

     As well as being greatly useful to tractators who wanted to go on to further voyages or to stay overseas for a longer period, it was also indispensable when a tractator fell ill or died.

2. A person who writes tracts.
3. A Tractarian.
   • 1842, Charles Kingsley, a letter:

     Do you not see the noble standard of Christian morality , and its infinite superiority to this ? Talking of the Tractators […]

Related terms

• tract

Translations

historical: person in medieval commerce who handles or transports merchandise

person who writes tracts

Anagrams

• attractor

Latin

Etymology

From tractō (“handle, manage, transact”) +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /trakˈtaː.tor/, [t̪räkˈt̪äːt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /trakˈta.tor/, [t̪räkˈt̪äːt̪or]

Noun

tractātor m (genitive tractātōris, feminine tractātrīx); third declension

1. (Classical Latin) masseur
2. (Classical Latin) imperial official, manager
3. (Late Latin) commentator, homilist
4. (Late Latin) accountant
5. (Medieval Latin) tractator, entrepreneur, person responsible for shipping and handling merchandise on behalf of an investor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tractātor	tractātōrēs
Genitive	tractātōris	tractātōrum
Dative	tractātōrī	tractātōribus
Accusative	tractātōrem	tractātōrēs
Ablative	tractātōre	tractātōribus
Vocative	tractātor	tractātōrēs

Related terms

• tractābilis
• tractātiō
• tractātrīx
• tractātus
• tractō

Descendants

• English: tractator

Verb

tractātor

1. second/third-person singular future passive imperative of tractō

References

• “tractator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tractator 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)
• tractator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “tractator”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers