Note 5 — VIII. Speech and Writing

Not lector, which means a professional reader, cf. De Or. 2. 55. 223. Similarly "audience" = ii qui audiunt or audientes (usually in oblique cases). Words in -tor and -trix always denote those who do something habitually or for some permanent object. Thus of functionaries—censor, dictator, quaestor; of artisans—fictor sculptor, institor retail dealer, mercator wholesale merchant, structor mason; of people who are always showing some distinguishing quality or defect—calumniator, ratiocinator; of those who have performed a feat so remarkable as to confer on them a durable characteristic—creator urbis (Romulus), servator Graeciae (Themistocles), Cimbrorum victor (Marius), etc.