DERIVATE SUBSTANTIVALE LATINESTI.NOMINA AGENTIS
Latin nominal derivatives. Nomina agentis

Summary/Abstract: In Latin there are three suffixes used for creating noun derivations classified as nomina agentis, names of the agent. Older studies include them in the category of the proper nouns, nomina personalia. Generally speaking, these nominal derivations indicate craftsmen and labourers or, in a much broader sense, someone exercising a certain activity. The three possibilities are rendered by the suffixes: - tor / -sor, -trix; -arius, -aria si -ō, -ōnis added to nominal roots, nouns or adjectives, and verbal roots, as is the case for most derivations in -tor. The derivation in -tor si -arius is very abundant, but not evenly spread during the Latin period, while the derivations in -ō, -ōnis are less frequent and can have a negative or deprecating connotation. Formations with -arius and -ō, -ōnis belong to the popular lexicon, sermo plebeius, whereas those in -tor have produced numerous elevated terms. All three derivative forms have survived in the Romance languages, maintaining the same proportion and the same stylistic distribution they had in Latin.

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