Definition
A Latin term from the civil law tradition carrying two related but distinct meanings:
1. Bearer or messenger. One who carries or delivers something — most commonly a letter, document, or instrument — on behalf of another. In this sense, lator refers to the physical carrier of a communication, not necessarily a party with any legal interest in its contents.
2. Maker or giver of laws. One who proposes, enacts, or presents legislation. In Roman law usage, the lator legis was the person who brought forward a law — the legislative proposer or sponsor.
Common Language
Wiktionary: "Lator" does not appear as a standard modern English word. As a Latin suffix or root, it denotes an agent or doer (as in "legislator," "narrator").
Webster's 1913: Not listed as an independent English entry. The Latin root lator appears embedded in derivative English words.
The gap worth noting: English speakers encounter lator only as a buried root in words like "legislator" (literally, one who brings a law — legis + lator). The legal dictionary sense preserves the Latin directly, which is uncommon in modern practice. Researchers should recognize that the civil law meaning of lator as bearer is not recoverable from ordinary English intuition.
Common Confusion
The two meanings of lator — bearer/messenger and lawgiver — can create confusion when reading older civil law texts or Roman law scholarship. Context almost always resolves the ambiguity: lator used with reference to a letter or document means bearer; lator used with reference to a lex or statute means its proposer. The compound lator legis (giver of the law) is the conventional form for the legislative sense and should be distinguished from the simpler lator standing alone.
Why It Matters in Research
Lator is a term researchers are unlikely to encounter in modern common law sources but may meet in several specific contexts:
Civil law and Roman law materials. The term appears in Digest-era sources and commentary on Roman procedure. If working with translations or annotations of Roman law, both meanings may appear in close proximity.
Historical correspondence and document delivery. In older English legal instruments — particularly ecclesiastical, chancery, or diplomatic records — lator or lator presentium (bearer of these presents) was a conventional formula identifying the messenger carrying the document. Researchers reading medieval or early modern legal Latin should recognize this phrase as routine formality rather than a term of legal significance.
Derivation tracing. Because lator is the direct ancestor of "legislator," researchers working on legislative history or comparative law may encounter the term in etymological discussions or civil law treatises. Bouvier's citation to Wharton's Law Lexicon signals that the term circulated in 19th-century legal reference works, though it was already archaic in common law practice by that point.
The term has no active doctrinal significance in modern U.S. or U.K. law. Its research value is almost entirely historical and linguistic.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries are in agreement on the core definition: lator means bearer or messenger. Black's second edition adds the lawgiver sense that the first edition and Bouvier omit, suggesting the editorial decision in later editions to capture the fuller Roman law range of the term.
Bouvier's cross-reference to Wharton's Law Lexicon (cited as "Whart. L. Lex.") is useful context: it signals that 19th-century practitioners were expected to recognize the term when reading civil law materials, even if it had no direct application in common law proceedings.
None of the historical dictionaries elaborates on lator presentium, the bearer-of-these-presents formula, which was the term's most practical appearance in working legal documents. That gap is worth noting for researchers who encounter the phrase in archival materials.
Jurisdictional Note
Lator has no jurisdiction-specific modern application. Its significance is confined to civil law systems, Roman law scholarship, and historical documents. Common law jurisdictions imported the bearer-of-these-presents formula into certain formal instruments without adopting the Latin term itself.