# lictor
## English
### Alternative forms

* lictour (obsolete, rare)

### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈlɪktə/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈlɪktɚ/
* Rhymes: -ɪktə(ɹ)

### Noun

lictor (plural lictors)
* An officer in ancient Rome, attendant on a consul or magistrate, who bore the fasces and was responsible for punishing criminals.
** 1606, Caius [i.e., Gaius] Suetonius Tranquillus, “The Historie of Caius Iulius Cesar Dictator”, in Philêmon Holland, transl., The Historie of Twelve Cæsars Emperours of Rome. […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes and George Snowdon] for Matthew Lownes, →OCLC, section 20, page 8:Hee brought-in likevvise the ancient cuſtome againe, that in vvhat moneth hee had not the Knitches of rods vvith Axes borne before him, a publique Officer called Accensvs ſhould huiſher him before, and the Serjeants or Lictours follovv after behinde.
** 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 276:“Regard not that, my brother,” answered Magdalen Græme; “the first successors of Saint Peter himself, were elected not in sunshine but in tempests—not in the halls of the Vatican, but in the subterranean vaults and dungeons of Heathen Rome—they were not gratulated with shouts and salvos of cannon-shot and of musquetry, and the display of artificial fire—no, my brother—but by the hoarse summons of Lictors and Prætors, who came to drag the Fathers of the Church to martyrdom. […]”
** 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:‘Beware the power of the mob, Caesar.’ Then, schooled in needful agility, he ran away before a lictor’s whip could reach him.

#### Translations
## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [likˈto]
* IPA: (Valencia) [likˈtoɾ]

### Noun

lictor m (plural lictors)
* lictor (an official in Ancient Rome)

### Further reading

* “lictor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “lictor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “lictor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “lictor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Latin
### Etymology

Possibly from the same root as ligō, ligāre, ligāvī, ligātus (“to bind”). In this case, the reference might be to the fascis symbol and their role as a magistrates' attaché; see also ligation and liaison. The long vowel would be the result of Lachmann's law, as in āctor from agō. Aulus Gellius writes that Valgius Rufus derived līctor from ligandō, whereas Tiro Tullius, a freedman of Cicero, derived it from līcium. The same root has been dubiously connected to religiō. On the basis of the Albanian lidh (“to bind, tie”), the root is reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ-, although the lack of other certain cognates makes it uncertain.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈliːk.tor/, [ˈlʲiːkt̪ɔr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈlik.tor/, [ˈlikt̪or]
* Gellius states that the vowel in the first syllable is long.

### Noun

līctor m (genitive līctōris, feminine līctrīx); third declension
* lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

#### Declension

Third-declension noun.

#### Descendants

* English: lictor
* French: licteur
* Italian: littore
* Polish: liktor
* Spanish: lictor

### References

* 1 2 De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “ligō”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 341
* 1 2 Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 12.3: 'Lictoris' vocabulum qua ratione conceptum ortumque sit; et super eo diversae sententiae Valgi Rufi et Tulli Tironis. Valgius Rufus in secundo librorum, quos inscripsit de rebus per epistulam quaesitis, 'lictorem' dicit a 'ligando' appellatum esse, quod, cum magistratus populi Romani virgis quempiam verberari iussissent, crura eius et manus ligari vincirique a viatore solita sint, isque, qui ex conlegio viatorum officium ligandi haberet, 'lictor' sit appellatus; utiturque ad eam rem testimonio M. Tulli verbaque eius refert ex oratione, quae dicta est pro C. Rabirio: 'Lictor', inquit 'conliga manus.' Haec ita Valgius. Et nos sane cum illo sentimus; sed Tiro Tullius, M. Ciceronis libertus, 'lictorem' vel a 'limo' vel a 'licio' dictum scripsit: 'Licio enim transverso, quod "limum" appellatur, qui magistratibus' inquit 'praeministrabant, cincti erant.' Si quis autem est, qui propterea putat probabilius esse, quod Tiro dixit, quoniam prima syllaba in 'lictore', sicuti in 'licio', producta est et in eo verbo, quod est 'ligo', correpta est, nihil ad rem istuc pertinet. Nam sicut a 'ligando' 'lictor', et a 'legendo' 'lector' et a 'viendo' 'vitor' et 'tuendo' 'tutor' et 'struendo' 'structor' productis, quae corripiebantur, vocalibus dicta sunt.

### Further reading

* “lictor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “lictor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* lictor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. the lictors clear the way: lictores summovent turbam (Liv. 4. 50)
* “lictor”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “lictor”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /likˈtoʁ/ [likˈtoh]
* (Brazil) IPA: /likˈtoʁ/ [likˈtoh]
** (São Paulo) IPA: /likˈtoɾ/
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /likˈtoʁ/ [likˈtoχ]
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /likˈtoɻ/
* (Portugal) IPA: /liˈktoɾ/
* (Portugal) IPA: /liˈktoɾ/
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /liˈkto.ɾi/
* Rhymes: (Brazil) -oʁ, (Portugal) -oɾ
* Hyphenation: lic‧tor

### Noun

lictor m (plural lictores)
* (history) lictor (An official, carrying a hatchet wrapped in a bundle of sticks, who preceded the consuls or the dictator, in ancient Rome.)

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

### Noun

lictor m (plural lictori)
* lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

#### Declension
## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

### Noun

lictor m (plural lictores)
* lictor (an official in Ancient Rome)

### Further reading

* “lictor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10