conservator (n.)
c. 1400, "an official entrusted with the power and the duty to protect the interests or rights of someone else or some thing," from Anglo-French conservatour, from Latin conservator "keeper, preserver, defender," agent noun of conservare "to keep, preserve, keep intact, guard," from assimilated form of com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + servare "keep watch, maintain" (from PIE root *ser- (1) "to protect").
General sense of "a preserver" (from injury, violation, etc.) is from mid-15c. Fem. form conservatrice was used mid-15c. in reference to the Virgin.
Entries linking to conservator
word-forming element usually meaning "with, together," from Latin com, archaic form of classical Latin cum "together, together with, in combination," from PIE *kom- "beside, near, by, with" (compare Old English ge-, German ge-). The prefix in Latin sometimes was used as an intensive.
Before vowels and aspirates, it is reduced to co-; before -g-, it is assimilated to cog- or con-; before -l-, assimilated to col-; before -r-, assimilated to cor-; before -c-, -d-, -j-, -n-, -q-, -s-, -t-, and -v-, it is assimilated to con-, which was so frequent that it often was used as the normal form.
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to protect." It forms all or part of: conservation; conservative; conserve; observance; observatory; observe; preserve; reservation; reserve; reservoir.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Avestan haurvaiti "to guard;" Latin servare "to guard, keep, watch;" Old Church Slavonic xraniti "to guard, protect;" Old High German gi-sarwi "armor, equipment," Old English searu "art, skill; wile, deceit."
"condition or office of a conservator," 1640s, from conservator + -ship.
updated on June 27, 2021
Dictionary entries near conservator
conservant
conservation
conservationist
conservatism
conservative
conservator
conservatorship
conservatory
conserve
consider
considerable
