viator
(vaɪˈeɪtə(r))
Also 6 vyatour.
[a. L. viātor, f. via way. Cf. obs. F. viateur, It. viatore, Sp. viador.]
A traveller, a wayfarer.
The ancient Roman sense of ‘court-officer, apparitor’ is given in various Dicts. from Chambers (1728) onwards.
| 1504 C'tess Richmond tr. De Imitatione iv. i. (1893) 262 He is our helth and redempcyon, and the consolacion of vyatours, and the eternall fruycyon of sayntes. 1655 Capel Tentations 12 Because the sight of God is not a duty of ours whilest we are viators here. 1660 T. Watson in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. iii. 8 The saints are not only blessed when they are comprehensors, but while they are viators. a 1704 T. Brown Comm.-pl. Bk. Wks. 1709 III. ii. 128 We find the Inscriptions address'd to the Viator, or Passenger. 1875 Ruskin Fors Clav. liv. 157 Concealed by the fine trees,..so..that the passing viator remains unappalled by them. |