apparitor

English

Alternative forms

• apparator
• paritor (obsolete)

Etymology

Latin appāritor (“public servant”), from appareo (“I wait upon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈpæɹitɚ/

Noun

apparitor (plural apparitors)

1. (historical) An officer who attended magistrates and judges to execute their orders.
   • 1857, Thomas De Quincey, Richard Bentley:

     Before any of his apparitors could execute the sentence, he was himself summoned away by a sterner apparitor to the other world.

2. A messenger or officer who serves the process of an ecclesiastical court.
   • 1797, Richard Burn, Ecclesiastical Law:

     a monition be awarded to an apparitor, to summon a man

References

• “apparitor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Alternative forms

• adpāritor

Etymology

From appāreō (“wait upon”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /apˈpaː.ri.tor/, [äpˈpäːrɪt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /apˈpa.ri.tor/, [äpˈpäːrit̪or]

Noun

appāritor m (genitive appāritōris); third declension

1. a gatekeeper

   Synonym: cūstos

2. a public servant

   Synonym: familiāris

3. a servant, secretary, lictor, deputy

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	appāritor	appāritōrēs
genitive	appāritōris	appāritōrum
dative	appāritōrī	appāritōribus
accusative	appāritōrem	appāritōrēs
ablative	appāritōre	appāritōribus
vocative	appāritor	appāritōrēs

Related terms

• appāreō
• appāritiō

Descendants

• French: appariteur

References

• “apparitor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “apparitor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• apparitor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.