arbiter
(ˈɑːbɪtə(r))
Also 6–7 -or, -our.
[a. L. arbiter (? f. ar- = ad- to + bētĕre, bītĕre, to go, ‘one who goes to see,’ hence, who looks into or examines) a judge in equity, a supreme ruler. Cf. arbitrator, arbitrer. Arbiter was the orig. L. word, still extant in F. as arbitre; arbitrātor was a later L. n. of agent from arbitrāri to act as arbiter; of this the OF. descendant was arbitreor, -our, by the side of which arbitrateur, -our, was also adopted as a technical term by the jurists. In Eng., arbitrour seems to have been the earliest, then arbitratour, and in 16th c. arbiter from L., though arbitre may well have existed in ME. (The 16th c. spelling arbitour, -or, was, as in ancestor, merely imitative of words properly in -our.)]
1. gen. One whose opinion or decision is authoritative in a matter of debate; a judge.
| 1502 Arnold Chron. (1811) 160 Abdalazys..most iust arbiter and juge of trouth. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 151 As a deputed judge or arbiter delegat to determin of mans health, and the preseruation thereof. 1790 Cowper Odyss. viii. 314 Nine arbiters appointed to intend The whole arrangement of the public games. 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 520 The late Mr. Fox (no mean arbiter in literary taste). |
2. a. spec. One who is chosen by the two parties in a dispute to arrange or decide the difference between them; an arbitrator, an umpire. (See note to arbitrator 1.)
| 1549 Hooper Ten Commandm. x. Wks. 1843–52, 348 To solicitate the same by honest arbiters and godly friends. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 20 Ane Judge haueand ane ordinar jurisdiction, may nocht be ane Arbitour. 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1809) 492 The power of arbiters is wholly derived from the consent of parties. 1852 Gladstone Gleanings IV. xiv. 150 Beyond the Atlantic..things civil and things spiritual move in their separate spheres, without any need for an arbiter between them. 1873 Dixon Two Queens I. iv. i. 179 Appointed arbiter of the dispute. |
b. transf. or fig.
| a 1568 Coverdale Hope of Faithf. xii. (1574) 83 Christ..the arbiter and mediator betwene God and men. 1580 Sidney Arcadia, The sun [at the equinox]..indifferent arbiter between the night and the day. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 50 Twilight..short Arbiter 'Twixt Day and Night. |
3. One who has power to decide or ordain according to his own absolute pleasure; one who has a matter under his sole control. Also fig.
| 1628 Sir R. Le Grys tr. Barclay's Argenis 286 Thou sittest as it were the arbiter of the fortune of thy neighbour Kings. 1652 Needham Selden's Mare Cl. 19 Absolute Lord or Arbiter of the whole world. 1785 Reid Int. Powers i. i. §11 Use..which is the arbiter of language. 1814 Byron To Napoleon, The arbiter of others' fate, A suppliant for his own. 1874 Motley Barneveld I. i. 61 The proud..position of arbiter of Europe. |
‖ 4. arbiter elegantiarum, arbiter elegantiæ [L., lit. ‘judge of elegance’: Petronius Arbiter was the elegantiæ arbiter of Nero's court (Tacitus Ann. xvi. 18)], a judge of matters of taste, an authority on etiquette.
| 1818 Lady Morgan Fl. Macarthy II. iii. 175 He looked up to Lord Frederick Eversham, as the arbiter elegantiarum of that system. 1841 Craik & MacFarlane Pict. Hist. Eng. Geo. III I. 651/1 Derrick..succeeded Nash as arbiter elegantiarum at Bath. 1933 Balmer & Wylie When Worlds Collide v. 49 A connoisseur of life and living—an arbiter elegantiae. 1957 R. N. C. Hunt Guide Communist Jargon xxi. 76 Zhdanov was appointed Stalin's arbiter elegantiarum in the late 'forties. |