Also 6 vyatour. [a. L. viātor, f. via way. Cf. obs. F. viateur, It. viatore, Sp. viador.] A traveller, a wayfarer.
The ancient Roman sense of ‘court-officer, apparitor’ is given in various Dicts. from Chambers (1728), onwards.
1504. C’tess Richmond, trans. De Imitatione, IV. i. (1893), 262. He is our helth and redempcyon, and the consolacion of vyatours, and the eternall fruycyon of sayntes.
1655. Capel, Tentations, 12. Because the sight of God is not a duty of ours whilest we are viators here.
1660. T. Watson, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. iii. 8. The saints are not only blessed when they are comprehensors, but while they are viators.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Comm.-pl. Bk., Wks. 1709, III. II. 128. We find the Inscriptions address’d to the Viator, or Passenger.
1875. Ruskin, Fors Clav., liv. 157. Concealed by the fine trees,… so … that the passing viator remains unappalled by them.
