| 释义 |
lictor Rom. Antiq.|ˈlɪktə(r)|
Also 4 littour.
[L.; perh. agent-n. f. lig-, root of ligāre to bind.]
An officer whose functions were to attend upon a magistrate, bearing the fasces before him, and to execute sentence of judgement upon offenders.
A dictator had twenty-four lictors, a consul twelve.
1382Wyclif Acts xvi. 35 The magistrates senten littoures, that ben mynistris of ponysching, seyinge, Dismitte, or delyuere, ȝe tho men. 1586E. Hoby Polit. Disc. Truth xxiv. 114 marg., The fagots of the licturs. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 214 Sawcie Lictors Will catch at vs like Strumpets. 1623Cockeram, Lictor, a Serieant, a Hang⁓man. 1674Milton P.R. iv. 65. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. xv. 302 Each [decemvir] was attended by his twelve lictors, who carried not the rods only but the axe. 1843Macaulay Lake Regillus i, Ho, lictors, clear the way!
b. transf.
1638Penit. Conf. viii. (1657) 223 God shall not greatly need any Lictors or Tormenters. 1667Causes Decay Chr. Piety ii. 31 They..become their own Lictors and make that their choice which is their extremest punishment. 1686J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. 352 Satan, as the Lictor or Executioner of our Saviour, immediately seized the Criminal, and inflicted on him some bodily Disease or Torment. 1883R. W. Dixon Mano iii. ii. 120 A thousand justices in judgment sit, A thousand lictors deal most righteous blows.
Hence † licˈtorian a., pertaining to a lictor.
1656in Blount Glossogr. |