| 释义 |
prætor, pretor|ˈpriːtə(r)|
Forms: 5–7 pretour, (6 Sc. -oir), 5– pretor, 6– prætor.
[Early mod.E. pretour = F. préteur, ad. L. prætor, -ōr-em (contracted from *præ-itor, lit. one who goes before, f. præ before + īre to go).]
Originally the title designating a Roman Consul as leader of the army; after b.c. 366, that of an annually elected Curule magistrate who performed some of the duties of the Consuls, to whom he was subordinate. Of these magistrates there were at first one, later two (prætor urbānus, prætor peregrīnus), and eventually eighteen.
c1425Wyntoun Cron. iv. 1527 And of þe pretor[s] twenty men, And grettast of þe consel þen. 1540Palsgr. Acolastus L iv, Lyke as the pretours of Rome dyd set those mens names in a table hyghest, whose causes shulde first be pleaded or dispatched. 1549Compl. Scot. xvii. 147 He desirit the office of pretoir at the senat. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. iv. 35 The throng that followes Cæsar at the heeles, Of Senators, of Prætors, common Sutors. 1693Dryden Juvenal iii. 219 The Prætor bids his Lictors mend their pace. 1755Johnson, Pretor. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xvii. II. 35 The prætors, annually created as the judges of law and equity. 1852Conybeare & Howson St. Paul (1862) II. xxvi. 439 The Emperor was prætor or commander-in-chief of the troops.
b. transf. One holding high civic office, as a mayor or chief magistrate. In 17th–18th c., the title (= It. pretore) of the chief magistrate, or mayor, and of the podestà, in various parts of Italy.
1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 375 No man beynge in auctorytie of any hygh offyce, as prouost, pretour, or any lyke offyce. 1591Lambarde Archeion (1635) 72 At the pleasure of the Chancellour or Prætor onely. 1623Cockeram, Pretor, a Maior, or chiefe Officer. 1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1106/2 The 30 past, the Pretor of Palermo sent to acquaint the Sieur de Haen, that the French Fleet had been seen. 1714Ibid. No. 5192/2 The Prince of Scordia, Pretor of Palermo, presented him with the Book of the Constitutions and Rights of the City. 1719D'Urfey Pills II. 100 And now we're in London let's pass this Affair, And praise the good Prætor now sits in the Chair. 1756–7Prætor of Verona [see prefect 1 c]. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxii. IV. 705 No two of these rural prætors had exactly the same notion of what was equitable. |