Lewis & Short

Parsing inflected forms may not always work as expected. If the following does not give the correct word, try Latin Words or Perseus.

1. făber, bri (gen. plur. most freq. fabrum; cf.: jam ut censoriae tabulae loquuntur, fabrum et procum audeo dicere, non fabrorum et procorum, Cic. Or. 46, 156: fabrum, Caes. ap. Cic. Att. 9, 8, C, 2; Caes. B. C. 1, 24, 4; Plin. 34, 1, 1, § 1 al.: fabrorum, Plaut. Most. 1, 2, 54; Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 56, § 147; Plin. 35, 15, 51, § 182 al.), m. [Sanscr. root bha-, gleam, shine; Gr. φημί, say, φαίνω, show; cf. for], a worker in wood, stone, metal, etc., a forger, smith, artificer, carpenter, joiner (syn.: artifex, opifex, operarius), τέκτων.

  1. I. Prop.
    1. A. With adj. of material, etc., specifying the trade: tamen ego me Phidiam esse mallem, quam vel optimum fabrum tignarium, carpenter, Cic. Brut. 73, 257; so, tignarius, id. Rep. 2, 22; Inscr. Orell. 4087; cf.: fabros tignarios dicimus non eos duntaxat, qui tigna dolant, sed omnes, qui aedificant, Dig. 50, 16, 235: ut fortunati sunt fabri ferrarii, Qui apud carbones assident! blacksmiths, Plaut. Rud. 2, 6, 47: fabrum aerariorum conlegium, copper-smiths, braziers, Plin. 34, 1, 1, § 1; cf.: marmoris aut eboris fabros aut aeris amavit, Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 96: ‡ eburarius, Inscr. ap. Spon. Misc. p. 222: ‡ intestinarius, one who does the fine carved work in wood for the interior of a building, a joiner, Inscr. Orell. 4182: ‡ a Corinthiis, ib. 4181: ‡ oculariarius, one who made silver eyes for statues, ib. 4185.
    2. B. In gen.: ut arcessatur faber, ut istas compedis tibi adimam, Plaut. Capt. 5, 4, 29: cogito, utrum me dicam medicum ducere an fabrum, id. Men. 5, 3, 11: hominem pro fabro aut pro tectore emere, Cic. Planc. 25, 62: fabri ad aedificandam rem publicam, work-people, workmen, laborers, id. Fam. 9, 2, 5; cf. id. Verr. 2, 5, 19, § 48: ex legionibus fabros delegit, the workmen belonging to the army, Caes. B. G. 5, 11, 3; whose overseer was called praefectus fabrūm, id. B. C. 1, 24, 4: His fabris crescunt patrimonia, i. e. these smiths know how to add to their patrimonies, Juv. 14, 116: faber volans, i. e. Icarus, id. 1, 54.
      Prov.: faber est quisque fortunae suae, every man is the maker of his own fortune, Appius ap. Sall. de Republ. Ordin. 1.

3. făber, bri, m., the dory, a sunfish (Zaeus faber, Linn.), Plin. 9, 18, 32, § 86; 32, 11, 53, § 148; Col. 8, 16, 9; Ov. Hal. 110.

* fā̆brĭo, īvi, 4, v. a. [faber], to make, prepare = fabricor, Ven. Carm. 2, 12, 23.