arbiter

arbiter

English

Etymology

From Middle English arbiter, arbytour, arbitre, from Old French arbitre, from Latin arbiter (“a witness, judge, literally one who goes to see”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation): IPA^(key): /ˈɑːbɪtə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

arbiter (plural arbiters)

1. A person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them; an arbitrator.
   • 1931, William Bennett Munro, The government of the United States, national, state, and local, page 495

     In order to protect individual liberty there must be an arbiter between the governing powers and the governed.

2. (with of) A person or object having the power of judging and determining, or ordaining, without control; one whose power of deciding and governing is not limited.

   Television and film, not Vogue and similar magazines, are the arbiters of fashion.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, PC, scene: Starships: Dreadnought Codex entry:

     The dreadnought is the ultimate arbiter of space warfare; millions of tons of metal, ceramic, and polymer dedicated to the projection of firepower against an enemy vessel of like ability. No sane commander would face a dreadnought with anything less than another dreadnought.

3. (electronics) A component in circuitry that allocates scarce resources.

Related terms

• arbitrable
• arbitrage
• arbitrary
• arbitral
• arbitrate
• arbitration
• arbitrator
• arbitress

Translations

a person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them

Bulgarian: арби́тър (bg) m (arbítǎr) Catalan: àrbitre (ca) m Dutch: arbiter (nl) m Finnish: välittäjä (fi), sovittelija (fi) French: arbitre (fr) m German: Schlichter (de) m, Schiedsrichter (de) m, Vermittler (de) m, Schiedsmann m, Schiedsfrau f Greek: Ancient: διαιτητής m (diaitētḗs) Hungarian: döntőbíró (hu), döntnök (hu) Indonesian: arbiter (id) Latin: arbiter (la) m Polish: arbiter (pl) m Portuguese: árbitro (pt) m Romanian: arbitru (ro) m Russian: арби́тр (ru) m (arbítr) Spanish: árbitro (es) m, árbitra f Swedish: skiljeman, skiljedomare

judge without control

Bulgarian: господар (bg) (gospodar), повелител (bg) (povelitel) French: arbitre (fr) m German: Gebieter (de) m, Herr (de) m, Lenker (de) m, Richter (de) m Russian: повели́тель (ru) m (povelítelʹ), повели́тельница (ru) f (povelítelʹnica), властели́н (ru) m (vlastelín), влады́ка (ru) m or f (vladýka), власти́тель (ru) m (vlastítelʹ), власти́тельница (ru) f (vlastítelʹnica)

Verb

arbiter (third-person singular simple present arbiters, present participle arbitering, simple past and past participle arbitered)

1. (transitive) To act as arbiter.
   • 2003, Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong: Why We Love France But Not the French, page 116

     Worse, since there was no institution to arbiter disagreements between Parliament and the government, whenever Parliament voted against the government on the smallest issues, coalitions fragmented, and governments had to be recomposed.

Further reading

• arbiter in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• arbiter in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Anagrams

• rarebit

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Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch arbiter, from Latin arbiter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [arˈbitɛr]
• Hyphenation: ar‧bi‧tèr

Noun

arbitèr (first-person possessive arbiterku, second-person possessive arbitermu, third-person possessive arbiternya)

1. arbiter, arbitrator: a person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them.

   Synonym: arbitrator

Related terms

• arbitrator
• arbitrer

 

Further reading

• “arbiter” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

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Latin

Etymology

Uncertain, but probably cognate to Umbrian ařputrati (“according to the judgement”, abl.sg.), corresponding to Latin arbitrātū. Possibly from ad- + baetō, with sporadic d > r as in arvorsum, arfuise, thus originally meaning "one that goes to something in order to see or hear it". However, that verb has no certain etymology, and the Umbrian pu remains unexplained. De Vaan suggests a derivation from putō to explain the Umbrian pu, however that is still morphologically difficult since the latter is based on an adjective. The voiced b would have to be exceptional or explained by some peculiarity of the řp sequence in Umbrian.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈar.bi.ter/, [ˈärbɪt̪ɛr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈar.bi.ter/, [ˈärbit̪er]

Noun

arbiter m (genitive arbitrī, feminine arbitra); second declension

1. witness, spectator, onlooker

   Synonyms: testis, auctor

2. (law) arbitrator, arbiter (having a wider power than a iūdex)
3. (transferred sense) judge, umpire, arbitrator, arbiter
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.665-666:

     pācis et armōrum superīs īmīsque deōrum
     arbiter, ālātō quī pede carpis iter

     In peace and war, [you] arbiter of the gods – for [those both] above and below – you who navigate the journey with winged foot, [...].
     (The poet is addressing Mercury (mythology).)

   Synonyms: iūdex, disceptātor, spectātor

4. overseer, controller, ruler

   Synonyms: erus, domnus, dominus

Declension

Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	arbiter	arbitrī
Genitive	arbitrī	arbitrōrum
Dative	arbitrō	arbitrīs
Accusative	arbitrum	arbitrōs
Ablative	arbitrō	arbitrīs
Vocative	arbiter	arbitrī

Related terms

• arbitrātus
• arbitrium, arbiterium
• arbitror

Descendants

Descendants of arbiter in other languages

• → Catalan: àrbitre
• → English: arbiter
• → French: arbitre
• → Italian: arbitro
• → Old Occitan: arbirio
• Portuguese: álvidro
• → Portuguese: árbitro
• → Romanian: arbitru
• → Russian: арби́тр (arbítr)
• → Sicilian: àrbitru
• → Spanish: árbitro

References

• “arbiter” on page 175 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “arbiter”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 50

Further reading

• “arbiter”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “arbiter”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• arbiter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) in private; tête-à-tête: remotis arbitris or secreto
    
• “arbiter”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “arbiter”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

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Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin arbiter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /arˈbi.tɛr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -itɛr
• Syllabification: ar‧bi‧ter

Noun

arbiter m pers

1. (law) arbiter (person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them)
2. authority (person)

   Synonyms: autorytet, powaga

3. (sports) referee (umpire, judge of a game)

   Synonym: sędzia

Declension

Declension of arbiter

	singular	plural
nominative	arbiter	arbitrzy
genitive	arbitra	arbitrów
dative	arbitrowi	arbitrom
accusative	arbitra	arbitrów
instrumental	arbitrem	arbitrami
locative	arbitrze	arbitrach
vocative	arbitrze	arbitrzy

Related terms

adjectives

• arbitralny
• arbitrażowy

 

adverb

• arbitralnie

 

noun

• arbiter
• arbitralność
• arbitraż

 

verb

• arbitrażować

 

Further reading

• arbiter in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• arbiter in Polish dictionaries at PWN