Latin, in fact, was so much the language as to become almost synonymous with a language. So a Latiner was an interpreter, as it is very well expressed in Selden's Table Talk, art. "Language":
"Latimer is the corruption of Latiner: it signifies he that interprets Latin; and though he interpreted French, Spanish, or Italian, he was the king's Latiner, that is, the king's interpreter."
This use of the word is well illustrated in the following extracts:
"A Knight ther language lerid in youth;
Breg hight that Knight, born Bretoun,
That lerid the language of Sessoun.
This Breg was the Latimer,
What scho said told Vortager."—Robert de Brunne's Metrical Chronicle.
"Par soen demein latinier
. . . .