lictor

• lictour (obsolete, rare)

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪktə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪktɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪktə(ɹ)

lictor (plural lictors)

1. An officer in Ancient Rome, attendant on a consul or magistrate, who bore the fasces and was responsible for punishing criminals.
   • 1606, Caius [i.e., Gaius] Suetonius Tranquillus, “The Historie of Caius Iulius Cesar Dictator”, in Philêmon Holland, transl., The Historie of Twelve Cæsars Emperours of Rome. […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes and George Snowdon] for Matthew Lownes, →OCLC, section 20, page 8:

     Hee brought-in likevvise the ancient cuſtome againe, that in vvhat moneth hee had not the Knitches of rods vvith Axes borne before him, a publique Officer called Accensvs ſhould huiſher him before, and the Serjeants or Lictours follovv after behinde.

   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 276:

     “Regard not that, my brother,” answered Magdalen Græme; “the first successors of Saint Peter himself, were elected not in sunshine but in tempests—not in the halls of the Vatican, but in the subterranean vaults and dungeons of Heathen Rome—they were not gratulated with shouts and salvos of cannon-shot and of musquetry, and the display of artificial fire—no, my brother—but by the hoarse summons of Lictors and Prætors, who came to drag the Fathers of the Church to martyrdom. […]”

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     ‘Beware the power of the mob, Caesar.’ Then, schooled in needful agility, he ran away before a lictor’s whip could reach him.

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [likˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [likˈtoɾ]

lictor m (plural lictors)

1. lictor (an official in Ancient Rome)

• “lictor”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “lictor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “lictor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “lictor”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Possibly from the same root as ligō, ligāre, ligāvī, ligātus (“to bind”).^[1] In this case, the reference might be to the fascis symbol and their role as a magistrates' attaché; see also ligation and liaison. The long vowel would be the result of Lachmann's law, as in āctor from agō. Aulus Gellius writes that Valgius Rufus derived līctor from ligandō, whereas Tiro Tullius, a freedman of Cicero, derived it from līcium.^[2] The same root has been dubiously connected to religiō. On the basis of the Albanian lidh (“to bind, tie”), the root is reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ-, although the lack of other certain cognates makes it uncertain.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈliːk.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈlik.tor]
• Gellius states that the vowel in the first syllable is long.^[2]

līctor m (genitive līctōris, feminine līctrīx); third declension

1. lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

Third-declension noun.

• English: lictor
• French: licteur
• Italian: littore
• Polish: liktor
• Spanish: lictor

• “lictor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lictor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “lictor”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the lictors clear the way: lictores summovent turbam (Liv. 4. 50)
    
• “lictor”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “lictor”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -oʁ, (Portugal) -oɾ
• Hyphenation: lic‧tor

lictor m (plural lictores)

1. (history) lictor (An official, carrying a hatchet wrapped in a bundle of sticks, who preceded the consuls or the dictator, in ancient Rome.)

• “lictor”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “lictor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

lictor m (plural lictori)

1. lictor (an officer in Ancient Rome)

Borrowed from Latin līctor.

• IPA^(key): /liɡˈtoɾ/ [liɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: lic‧tor

lictor m (plural lictores)

1. lictor (an official in Ancient Rome)

• “lictor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025