In Greek, what does the suffix -or mean?

–tōr is an agent suffix:

Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges (misscanned)

a. The primary suffixes τᾱ, τηρ, τορ, τρο, ευ, denoting the agent or doer of an action, are masculine.

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3. τορ (nom. -τωρ): ῥή-τωρ orator (ἐρέω shall say, ἐρ-, ῥε-), εἴ-ρη-κα have spoken, κτίσ-τωρ founder (κτίζω found, κτιδ-), σημάντωρ commander poet. (σημαίνω give a signal, σημαν-).

-τωρ and its Latin cognate -tor (e.g. gladita-tor, domina-tor, can-tor), is an Indo-European suffix.

5 Comments

• John Cowan says:

  2018-01-13 at 13:11

  It’s also both the agent suffix and the agent preposition in Voksigid. I remember speculating on the meaning of homotor (the agent of the stative verb ‘be human’) on the Conlang list. Who is it who makes us human? God?

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  • Nick Nicholas says:

    2018-01-14 at 10:42

    In colloquial Greek, and for that matter in formal English (“make one human”), that is the function of an educator, or a mentor.

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    • John Cowan says:

      2018-01-14 at 11:57

      But those are not stative verbs.

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      • Nick Nicholas says:

        2018-01-14 at 12:47

        Make you human = make you be-human: not much of a stretch.

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        • John Cowan says:

          2018-01-15 at 07:40

          Babies are quite human. You’ll see.

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