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Webster 1913 Edition

Speculator

Spec′u-laˊtor

(spĕk′ū̍-lāˊtẽr)
,
Noun.
[L., a spy, explorer, investigator: cf. F.
spéculateur
.]
One who speculates. Specifically:
(a)
An observer; a contemplator; hence, a spy; a watcher.
[Obs.]
Sir T. Browne.
(b)
One who forms theories; a theorist.
A
speculator
who had dared to affirm that the human soul is by nature mortal.
Macaulay.
(c)
(Com.)
One who engages in speculation; one who buys and sells goods, land, etc., with the expectation of deriving profit from fluctuations in price.

Webster 1828 Edition

Speculator

SPEC'ULATOR

, n.
1.
One who speculates or forms theories.
2.
An observer; a contemplator.
3.
A spy; a watcher.
4.
In commerce, one who buys goods, land or other thing, with the expectation of a rise of price, and of deriving profit from such advance.

Definition 2024

speculator

speculator

English

Noun

speculator ‎(plural speculators)

  1. One who speculates; an observer; a contemplator.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Thomas Browne to this entry?)
  2. One who forms theories; a theorist.
    • 1666, Joseph Glanvill, Philosophical Considerations concerning Witches and Witchcraft
      […] in things of Fact, the People are as much to be believed, as the most subtle Philosophers and Speculators, since here sense is the Judge.
    • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second
      For, in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, a speculator who had dared to affirm that the human soul is by its nature mortal, and does, in the great majority of cases, actually die with the body, would have been burned alive in Smithfield.
  3. (business, finance) One who speculates; as in investing, one who is willing to take volatile risks upon invested principle for the potential of substantial returns.

See also

Translations

Anagrams

Latin

Pronunciation

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /spe.kuˈlaː.tor/, [spɛ.kʊˈɫaː.tɔr]

Noun

speculātor m ‎(genitive speculātōris); third declension

  1. spy, scout
  2. explorer
  3. investigator

Inflection

Third declension.

Case Singular Plural
nominative speculātor speculātōrēs
genitive speculātōris speculātōrum
dative speculātōrī speculātōribus
accusative speculātōrem speculātōrēs
ablative speculātōre speculātōribus
vocative speculātor speculātōrēs

Descendants

Verb

speculātor

  1. second-person singular future active imperative of speculor
  2. third-person singular future active imperative of speculor

References

Etymology

Latin , a spy, explorer, investigator.

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