explorator

From Middle English exploratour (“scout or spy”), from Middle French explorateur and its etymon Latin explōrātor.^[1][2]

explorator (plural explorators)

1. (dated) Synonym of explorer.
2. (obsolete) Synonym of scout / spy.
   • 1616, T. G. [sometimes attributed to Thomas Gainsford], “Inuections”, in The Rich Cabinet Furnished with Varietie of Excellent Discriptions, Exquisite Charracters, Witty Discourses, and Delightfull Histories, Deuine and Morrall. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Roger Iackson […], →OCLC, folio 68, verso:

     Thus did the explorators of the land of Canaan terrifie the Iewes: thus did Caleb and Ioſhua comfort their bretheren.

   • 1685, Michael Seigneur de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton, “Of Vanity”, in Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne. […], volume III, London: […] T[homas] Basset […] and M[atthew] Gilliflower and W[illiam] Hensman […], →OCLC, page 370:

     There is nothing ſo empty and neceſſitous as thou who imbraceſt the Univerſe, thou art the Explorator without Knowledge, the Magiſtrate without Juriſdiction; and after all, the Fool in the Play.

   • 1799, Thomas Reynolds, Iter Britanniarum; or That Part of the Itinerary of Antoninus Which Relates to Britain, with a New Comment, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] J[ohn] Burges printer to the University; and sold by J[ohn] Deighton, […] Cadell and Davies, […] and Mr. Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 157:

     Camden, and Horſley explain the inſcription in this manner, Duplares Numeri Exploratorum Bremenii Aram inſtituerunt, as if certain unknown Bands of explorators erected the altar at Bremenium, that is, here at Riecheſter.

   • 1840, John Hodgson, History of Northumberland, part II, volume III, Newcastle upon Tyne: […] J[ohn] Blackwell and Co., →OCLC, page 313, column 2:

     Num. Exploratorum, stationed by the Notitia at Lavatræ or Bowes; and there is a band or troop of explorators belonging to the fourth cohort of the Gauls mentioned on two inscriptions at Risingham, and a numerus of the same kind on an altar at Bremenium. […] The station of the explorators on the western limit of the empire in Africa was “Exploratio at Mercurios,” about 200 miles south of Tingi, or Tangiers.

• “explorator”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

From explōrāre (“to explore, to spy upon, to test”) +‎ -tor (“-er: forming agent nouns”), from ex- (“out”) + plōrāre (“to shout, to cry”), possibly with reference to raising game while hunting by sending out cryers.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɛk.spɫoːˈraː.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ek.sploˈraː.t̪or]

explōrātor m (genitive explōrātōris); third declension

1. an explorer
2. a scout
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico VII.11:

     Qua re per exploratores nuntiata

     These things having been announced by the scouts

3. a spy

Third-declension noun.

• “explorator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “explorator”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• explorator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Borrowed from French explorateur. Equivalent to explora +‎ -tor.

explorator m (plural exploratori)

1. explorer