# consul - praetor



## Cecilio

I'm interested in the etymology of these two words, used in Latin to refer to high magistrates: "consul" and "praetor". I've read that "consul" is connected with the verb "salio", but I don't know about the other. 

Some time ago I read that in the early times of the Roman Republic these two words were regarded as near-synonyms. Is that true?

On the other hand, I'd like to ask you if you know any reliable dictionary of Latin etymology, either on-line or in book format. I would very much appreciate your help.


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## Spectre scolaire

Alfred Ernout & Antoine Meillet: _Dictionnaire __étymologique de la langue latine. Histoire des mots_, Paris.

The book was first published some 75 years ago, but has been reedited several times. The last edition dates from 1985 and has been completely reset with the help of a third author. It is _the_ etymological dictionary of Latin - normally referred to as _Ernout_. I am sorry I don’t have it next to me for which reason I leave the first part of your question. There must be several sites on the web, however, where central notions like _consul_ and _praetor_ are being discussed in their Roman institutional framework.
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## Cecilio

Thank you very much, Spectre. Ernout and Meillet's dictionary is the kind of thing I was looking for.


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## jester.

Cecilio said:


> I'm interested in the etymology of these two words, used in Latin to refer to high magistrates: "consul" and "praetor". I've read that "consul" is connected with the verb "salio", but I don't know about the other.



I might, of course, be wrong. I haven't consulted an ethymological dictionary, but I "see" a possible connection to _consulare/counsel/consejo/aconsejar_.


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## modus.irrealis

Another resource is Lewis & Short (available here among other places), which sometimes has a short etymological note in its entries. For _consul_ it mentions the connection with _salio_, calling it probable, and for _praetor_, it says this is from an original _praeitor_ derived from _praeeo_ "to go before."


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## Spectre scolaire

jester. said:
			
		

> I haven't consulted an ethymological dictionary


 Just for the record:

I often see “ethymological” and “ethymology” with an h. 

The ...etymology of this word is Greek έτυμον (+ the suffix we all know) which means (_more or less_) what etymon means in English: “an earlier form of a word in the same language or an ancestral language; a word in a foreign language that is the source of a particular loanword” (Webster).

There is no such word as *έθυμον in Classical Greek – as far as I know.

Needless to say that Latin etymon also means “original meaning”.
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## jester.

Do you know what? While writing that post I was wondering whether I should take a look into my dictionary in order to check the spelling of that word. But I thought I knew how to write it correctly... How foolish of me...


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