English
censor
Censor comes from Latin cēnsor ‘magistrate’, and goes back to cēnseō ‘to give an opinion, judge’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēnseō1‘to give an opinion, judge’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēnsor1‘magistrate’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1608–1609censor1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English censor
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus: “And Nobly nam'd, ſo twice being Cenſor, / Was…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēnseōWiktionary, English censor‘to give an opinion, judge’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēnsorWiktionary, English censor‘magistrate’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1608–1609censorWiktionary, English censor. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus: “And Nobly nam'd, ſo twice being Cenſor, / Was…”
The story
The noun is borrowed from Latin cēnsor (‘magistrate; critic’), from cēnseō (‘to give an opinion, judge; to assess, reckon; to decree, determine’) + -sor (variant of -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns)). The English word is cognate with Late Middle English sensour, Proto-Iranian *cánhati (‘to declare; to explain’), Sanskrit शंसति (śaṃsati, “to declare”).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- ‘to announce, proclaim’
charm, cosmic, cosmetic, cosmos, cosmetology, 12 more
through Latin cēnseō ‘to give an opinion, judge’
Today it means
noun One of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens, and by Classical times (between the 8th century B.C.E. and the 6th century C.E.) was a high judge of public behaviour and morality.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “censor”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin cēnseō / censor