speculator

English

Etymology

From Latin speculātor (“spy, explorer, investigator”), from speculor (“to watch, to observe”) +‎ -tor (“-er: forming agent nouns”), from specula (“watchtower”), from speciō (“to watch, to observe”), q.v. In some senses, an agent noun formed within English from speculate. Doublet of spectator.

Noun

speculator (plural speculators)

1. One who speculates; an observer; a contemplator.
   • c. 1683 (date written), Thomas Brown [i.e., Thomas Browne], “(please specify the page)”, in [Thomas Tenison], editor, Certain Miscellany Tracts, London: […] Charles Mearn, […], published 1683, →OCLC:

     a bold and paradoxical speculator

2. One who forms theories; a theorist.
   • 1666, Joseph Glanvill, Philosophical Considerations concerning Witches and Witchcraft:

     […] in things of Fact, the People are as much to be believed, as the most subtle Philosophers and Speculators, since here sense is the Judge.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second:

     For, in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, a speculator who had dared to affirm that the human soul is by its nature mortal, and does, in the great majority of cases, actually die with the body, would have been burned alive in Smithfield.

3. (business, finance) One who speculates; as in investing, one who is willing to take volatile risks upon invested principal for the potential of substantial returns.
4. (rugby) Synonym of field goal

Related terms

• speculate
• speculation
• speculative
• speculatrix

Translations

one who speculates; as in investing

• Arabic: مُضَارِب m (muḍārib)
• Bulgarian: спекулант (bg) m (spekulant)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 投機者 / 投机者 (zh)

• Czech: spekulant m
• Danish: spekulant c
• Dutch: speculant (nl) m
• Finnish: keinottelija (fi)
• French: spéculateur (fr) m, agioteur (fr) m, boukiman m (Senegal)
• German: Spekulant (de) m, Spekulantin (de) f
• Indonesian: spekulan (id), spekulator (id)
• Irish: amhantraí m
• Japanese: 投機家 (とうきか, tōkika)
• Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 투기꾼 (tugikkun)
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: spekulant (pl) m
• Portuguese: especulador (pt) m
• Russian: спекуля́нт (ru) m (spekuljánt), спекуля́нтка (ru) f (spekuljántka)
• Spanish: especulador m
• Swedish: spekulant (sv) c
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: ґешефтя́р m (gešeftjár), спекуля́нт m (spekuljánt), спекуля́нтка f (spekuljántka)

See also

• entrepreneur
• gambler
• punter

Anagrams

• copulaters, outparcels, outplacers, peculators

Latin

Etymology

From speculor (“to watch, to observe”) +‎ -tor (“-er: forming agent nouns”), from specula (“watchtower”), from speciō (“to watch, to observe”). Doublet of spectator.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /spe.kuˈlaː.tor/, [s̠pɛkʊˈɫ̪äːt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /spe.kuˈla.tor/, [spekuˈläːt̪or]

Noun

speculātor m (genitive speculātōris, feminine speculātrīx); third declension

1. spy, scout
   1. a particular scout of the Imperial legion’s commander or of a province’s governor also competent to carry out executions
2. explorer, investigator

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	speculātor	speculātōrēs
genitive	speculātōris	speculātōrum
dative	speculātōrī	speculātōribus
accusative	speculātōrem	speculātōrēs
ablative	speculātōre	speculātōribus
vocative	speculātor	speculātōrēs

Descendants

• → Catalan: especulador
• → English: speculator
• → French: spéculateur
• → Byzantine Greek: σπεκουλάτωρ (spekoulátōr)
  • → Aramaic::

    Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: אספקלטור (/⁠*ʾespuqlāṭōr⁠/)

    Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ܐܣܦܩܘܠܛܘܪ (/⁠*ʾespuqlāṭōr⁠/)

    Classical Syriac: ܐܷܣܦܽܘܩܠܴܛܪܐ (ʾespuqlāṭrā)

    Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אִסְפַּקְלָטוֺרָא (ʾispaqlāṭōrā)

• → Gothic: 𐍃𐍀𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌰𐍄𐌿𐍂 (spaikulatur)
• → Italian: speculatore
• → Portuguese: especulador
• → Romanian: speculator
• → Spanish: especulador

Verb

speculātor

1. second/third-person singular future active imperative of speculor

References

• “speculator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “speculator”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• speculator in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• speculator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “speculator”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French spéculateur. Equivalent to specula +‎ -tor.

Noun

speculator m (uncountable)

1. speculator

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	speculator	speculatorul
genitive-dative	speculator	speculatorului
vocative	speculatorule