1. The words of the poets are hard to expound. For often some meaning that was fixed in olden times has been buried by a sudden catastrophe, or in a word whose proper make-up of letters is hidden after some elements have been taken away from it, the intent of him who applied the word becomes in this fashion quite obscure. There should be no rebuking then of those who in examining a word add a letter or take one away, that what underlies this expression may be more easily perceived: just as, for instance, that the eyes may more easily see Myrmecides’ indistinct handiwork in ivory, men put black hairs behind the objects.
2. Even though you employ these tools to unearth the intent of him who applied the word, much remains hidden. But if the art of poesy, which has in the verses preserved many words that are early, had in the same fashion also set down why and how they came to be, the poems would bear fruit in more prolific measure; unfortunately, in poems as in prose, not all the words can be assigned to their primitive radicals, and there are many which cannot be so assigned by him whom learning does not attend with favour in his nocturnal studies, though he read prodigiously. In the interpretation of the Hymns of the Salians, which was made by Aelius, an outstanding scholar in Latin literature, you will see that the interpretation is greatly furthered by attention to a single poor letter, and that much is obscured if such a letter is passed by.
3. Nor is this astonishing: for not only were there many who failed to recognize Epimenides when he awoke from sleep after fifty years, but even Teucer’s own family, in the play of Livius Andronicus, do not know who he is after his absence of fifteen years. But what has this to do with the age of poetic words? If the reign of Numa Pompilius is the source of those in the Hymns of the Salians and those words were not received from earlier hymn-makers, they are none the less seven hundred years old. Therefore why should you find fault with the diligence of a writer who has not been able to find the name of the great-grandfather or the grandfather of a demigod’s great-grandfather, when you yourself cannot name the mother of your own great-grandfather’s great-grandfather? This interval is much closer to us, than the stretch from the present time to the beginning of the Salians, when, they say, the first poetic words of the Romans were composed, in Latin.
4. Therefore the man who has made many apt pronouncements on the origins of words, one should regard with favour, rather than find fault with him who has been unable to make any contribution; especially since the etymologic art says that it is not of all words that the basis can be stated — just as it cannot be stated how and why a medicine is effective for curing; and that if I have no knowledge of the roots of a tree, still I am not prevented from saying that a pear is from a branch, the branch is from a tree, and the tree from roots which I do not see. For this reason, he who shows that equitatus ‘cavalry’ is from equites ‘cavalrymen,’ equites from eques ‘cavalryman,’ eques from equus ‘horse,’ even though he does not give the source of the word equus, still gives several lessons and satisfies an appreciative person; whether or not we can do as much, the present book itself shall serve as testifying witness.
5. In this book I shall speak of the words which have been put down by the poets, first those about places, then those which are in places, third those about times, then those which are associated with time-ideas; but in such a way that to them I shall add those which are associated with these, and that if any word lies outside this fourfold division, I shall still include it in the account.
6. I shall begin from this:
One there shall be, whom thou shalt raise up to sky’s azure temples.
Templum ‘temple’ is used in three ways, of nature, of taking the auspices, from likeness: of nature, in the sky; of taking the auspices, on the earth; from likeness, under the earth. In the sky, templum is used as in the Hecuba:
great temples of the gods, united with the shining stars.
On the earth, as in the Periboea:
To Bacchus’ temples aloft On sharp jagged rocks it draws near.
Under the earth, as in the Andromacha:
Be greeted, great temples of Orcus, By Acheron’s waters, in Hades.
7. Whatever place the eyes had intuiti ‘gazed on,’ was originally called a templum ‘temple,’ from tueri ‘to gaze’; therefore the sky, where we attuimur ‘gaze at’ it, got the name templum, as in this:
Trembled the mighty temple of Jove who thunders in heaven, that is, as Naevius says, Where land’s semicircle lies, Fenced by the azure vault.
Of this temple the four quarters are named thus: the left quarter, to the east; the right quarter, to the west; the front quarter, to the south; the back quarter, to the north.
8. On the earth, templum is the name given to a place set aside and limited by certain formulaic words for the purpose of augury or the taking of the auspices. The words of the ceremony are not the same everywhere; on the Citadel, they are as follows:
Temples and wild lands be mine in this manner, up to where I have named them with my tongue in proper fashion.
Of whatever kind that truthful tree is, which I consider that I have mentioned, temple and wild land be mine to that point on the left.
Of whatever kind that truthful tree is, which I consider that I have mentioned, temple and wild land be mine to that point on the right.
Between these points, temples and wild lands be mine for direction, for viewing, and for interpreting, and just as I have felt assured that I have mentioned them in proper fashion.
9. In making this temple, it is evident that the trees are set as boundaries, and that within them the regions are set where the eyes are to view, that is we tueamur ‘are to gaze,’ from which was said templum and contemplare ‘to contemplate,’ as in Ennius, in the Medea:
Contemplate and view Ceres’ temple on the left.
Contempla ‘do thou contemplate’ and conspicare ‘do thou view’ are the same, it is obvious, and therefore the augur, when he makes a temple, says conspicione ‘for viewing,’ with regard to where he is to delimit the conspectus ‘view’ of the eyes. As to their adding cortumio when they say conspicio, this term is derived from the vision of the cor ‘heart’; for cor is the basis of cortumio.
10. As to his adding that the temples shall be tesca ‘wild lands,’ those who have written glossariesa say that this means that the temples are inviolable. This is quite wrong: for the Hostilian Meeting-House is a temple and is not inviolable. But that people should have the idea that a temple is a consecrated building, seems to have come about from the fact that in the city Rome most consecrated buildings are temples, and they are likewise inviolable, and that certain places in the country, which are the property of some god, are called tesca.
11. For there is the following in Accius, in the Philoctetes of Lemnos:
What man are thou, who dost advance To places desert, places waste?
What sort of places these are, he indicates when he says:
Around you you have the Lemnian shores, Apart from the world, and the high-seated shrines Of Cabirian Gods, and the mysteries which Of old were expressed with sacrifice pure.
Then:
You see now the temples of Vulcan, close by Those very same hills, upon which he is said To have fallen when thrown from the sky’s lofty sill.
And:
The wood here you see with the smoke gushing forth, Whence the fire — so they say — was secretly brought To mankind.
Therefore he made no mistake in calling these lands tesca, and yet he did not do so because they were consecrated; but because men attuentur ‘gaze at’ places where mysteries take place, they were called tuesca.
12. Tueri has two meanings, one of ‘seeing’ as I have said, whence that verse of Ennius:
I really see thee, sire? Oh Jupiter! And:
Who will now wish, though father or kinsman, to look on your faces?
The other meaning is of ‘caring for’ and tutela ‘guardianship,’ as when we say “I wish he were willing tueri ‘to care for’ the farmhouse,” from which some indeed say that the man who attends to consecrated buildings is an aedituus and not an aeditumus; but still this other form itself proceeded from the same source, because when we want some one to take care of the house we say “You will see to matters at home,” as Plautus does when he says:
Inside prepare, take pains, see to’t; Let that be done, that’s needed.
In this way the vestispica ‘wardrobe maid’ was named, who was spicere ‘to see’ the vestis ‘clothing,’ that is, was to see to the clothing and tueri ‘guard’ it. Therefore, both temples and tesca ‘wastes’ were named from tueri, with that difference of meaning which I have mentioned.
13. Moreover, from the same source comes the word in Ennius:
Extemplo take me, kill me, kill my daughter too.
For extemplo ‘on the spot’ is continuo ‘without interval,’ because every templum ought to be fenced in uninterruptedly and have not more than one entrance.
14. As for what is in Accius, With thy team do thou go through the sky, through the bright Constellations aloft, which the universe holds, Adorned with its twice six continuous signs, the word polus ‘sky’ is Greek, it means the circle of the sky: therefore the expression pervade polum ‘traverse the sky’ means ‘go around the πόλος.’ Signa ‘signs of the zodiac’ means the same as sidera ‘constellations.’ Signa are so called because they significant ‘indicate’ something, as the Balance marks the equinox; those are sidera which so to speak insidunt ‘settle down’ and thus indicate something on earth by burning or otherwise: as for example a signum candens ‘scorching sign,’ in the matter of the flocks.
15. In the phrase Again of the land I shall see the anfracta, anfractum means ‘bent or curved,’ being formed from a double source, from ambitus ‘circuit’ and frangere ‘to break.’ Concerning this the laws bid that a road shall be eight feet wide where it is straight, and sixteen at an anfractum, that is, at a curve.
16. Ennius says:
As surely as to thee Titan’s daughter Trivia shall grant a line of sons.
The Trivian Titaness is Diana, called Trivia from the fact that her image is set up quite generally in Greek towns where three roads meet, or else because she is said to be the Moon, which moves in the sky by tres viae ‘three ways,’ upwards, sidewise, and onwards. She is called Titanis ‘daughter of Titan,’ because her mother was, as Plautus says, Lato; and she, as Manilius writes, Was begot by the Titan Coeus.
As the same author writes, The chaste Latona shall give birth, by Jove’s embrace, To Deliad twins, that is, to Apollo and Diana. These gods were called Deliads because the Titaness gave birth to them on the island of Delos.
17. The same has this:
holy Apollo, who dost hold The true established umbilicus of the lands.
The umbilicus, they say, was so called from our umbilicus ‘navel,’ because this is the middle place of the lands, as the navel in us. But both these are false statements: this place is not the middle of the lands, nor is the navel the middle point of a man. But in this fashion is indicated the so-called ‘counter-earth of Pythagoras,’ so that the line which is midway in sky and earth should be drawn below the navel through that by which the distinction is made whether a human being is male or female, where human life starts — and the like is true in the case of the universe: for there all things originate in the centre, because the earth is the centre of the universe. Besides, if the ball of the earth has any centre, or umbilicus, it is not Delphi that is the centre; and the centre of the earth at Delphi — not really the centre, but so called — is something in a temple building at one side, something that looks like a treasure-house, which the Greeks call the ὀμφαλός, which they say is the tomb of the Python. From this our interpreters turned the word into umbilicus ‘navel.’
18. Pacuvius has this verse:
Calydonian terra, nurse of mighty men.
But just as Tusculum has an ager ‘field-land,’ so Calydon has an ager and not a terra ‘land’; but by the privilege of the poets, because Aetolia in which Calydon is located is a terra, he wished all Aetolia to be understood from the name of the part.
19. In this of Accius, Sailing past the mystic waters on the right, mystica ‘mystic’ is from the famous mysteria ‘mysteries,’ which are performed there in places close at hand. In the verse of Ennius, Since the Areopagites have cast an equal vote, Areopagitae ‘Areopagites’ is from Areopagus; this is a place at Athens.
20. Muses, ye who with dancing feet beat mighty Olympus.
Olympus is the name which the Greeks give to the sky, and all peoples give to a mountain in Macedonia; it is from the latter, I am inclined to think, that the Muses are spoken of as the Olympiads: for they are called in the same way from other places on earth the Libethrids, the Pipleids, the Thespiads, the Heliconids.
21. In this phrase of Cassius, The Hellespont and its barriers, claustra ‘barriers’ is used because once on a time Xerxes clausit ‘closed’ the place by barriers: for, as Ennius says, He, and none other, on Hellespont deep did fasten a bridgeway.
Unless it is said rather from the fact that at this place the sea concluditur ’is hemmed in’ by Asia and Europe; in the narrows it forms the entrance to the Propontis.
22. In the verse of Pacuvius, To be forsaken in the Aegean strait, fretum ‘strait’ is named from the likeness to fervens ‘boiling’ water, because the tide often dashes into a strait and boils up. The Aegean is named from the islands, because in this sea the craggy islands in the open water are called aeges ‘goats,’ from their likeness to she-goats.
23. They had almost arrived; on the aequor deep the rates were gliding. Aequor ‘level water’ is a name given to the sea, because it is aequatum ‘levelled’ when it is not stirred up by the wind. By ratis ‘raft’ he meant a war-ship, as does Naevius when he says:
That they may clash’gainst the foe Their bronze-shod raft, in which They go o’er the liquid sea, Sweating as they sit.
A war-ship is called a ratis from the oars, because these, when they are raised through the water on the right and on the left, seem to form two rafts; for it is a ratis — from which this word is transferred — there where several poles or beams are joined together and floated on the water. From this, the adjective ratarius is applied to small boats with oars. Here one Leaf is Lacking in the Model Copy 24. ... it is clear that agrestes ‘rural’ sacrificial victims were so called from ager ‘field-land’; that infulatae ‘filleted’ victims were so called, because the head-adornments of wool which are put on them, are infulae ‘fillets’: therefore then, with reference to the carrying of leafy branches and flowers to the burial-place, he added:
Decked not with wool, but with a hair-like shock of leaves.
25. The horned shadow lures the bull to fight. It is clear that cornuta ‘horned’ is said from cornua ‘horns’; cornua is said from curvor ‘curvature,’ because most horns are curva ‘curved.’
26. Learn that we, the Camenae, are those whom they tell of as Muses. Casmenae is the early form of the name, when it originated, and it is so written in other places: the name Carmenae is derived from the same origin. In many words, at the point where the ancients said S, the later pronunciation is R, as the following in the Hymn of the Salians: Planter God, arise. Everything indeed have I committed unto (thee as) the Opener. Now art thou the Doorkeeper, thou art the Good Creator, the Good God of Beginnings. Thou’lt come especi ally, thou the superior of these kings...
Here A Space of Ten Lines Was Left Vacant in the Model Copy 27.... <In the Hymn of the Salians are found such old forms as> foedesum for foederum ‘of treaties,’ plusima for plurima ‘most,’ meliosem for meliorem ‘better,’ asenam for arenam ‘sand,’ ianitos for ianitor ‘doorkeeper.’ Therefore from Casmena came Carmena, and from Carmena, with loss of the R, came Camena. From the same radical came canite ‘sing ye,’ for which in a Salian verse is written cante, and this is the verse:
Sing ye to the Father of the Gods, entreat the God of Gods.
28. In The Song of Priam there is the following:
I wish the ancient Muses to tell a story old. First, cascum means ‘old’; secondly, it has its origin from the Sabine language, which ran its roots back into Oscan. That cascum is ‘old,’ is indicated by the phrase of Ennius:
Land that the Early Latins then held, the long-ago peoples.
It is even better shown in Manilius’s utterance:
That Whitehead married Oldie is surely no surprise: The marriage, when he made it, was aged and decayed.
It is shown likewise in the epigram of Papinius,which he made with reference to the youth Casca:
Funny it is, when your mistress tenderly calls you her “Casca”; Daughter of Rummy she, old and a half — you a boy. Call her your “laddie”; for thus there will be the mule’s trade of favours: You’re but a lad, to be sure; Oldie’s the name for your girl.
29. The same is shown by the fact that there is a town named Casinum, which was inhabited by the Samnites, who originated from the Sabines, and we Romans even now call it Old Market. Likewise in several Atellan farces the word denotes Pappus, an old man’s character, because the Oscans call an old man casnar.
30. In Lucilius:
Why should I try to tell to you Roundway’s round about speeches?
The word ambages ‘circumlocutions’ comes from the word ambe ‘round about,’ which is present in ambitus ‘circuit’ and in ambitiosus ‘going around (for votes), ambitious.’
31. In Valerius of Sora is the following:
It is an old adagio, Publius Scipio.
This word has gone out of use to such a point that the Greek word put for it is more easily understood: for it is the same as that which the Greeks call παροιμία ‘proverb,’ as for example:
I’m holding a wolf by the ears, Dog doesn’t eat dog-flesh.
Now adagio is only ambagio with a letter changed, which is said because it ambit ‘goes around’ the discourse and does not stop at some one thing only. Ambagio resembles ambustum, which is ‘burnt around,’ and an ambegna cow in the augural speech, which is a cow around which other victims are arranged.
32. Whereas there are three things combined which must be observed in the origin of words, namely from what the word is applied, and to what, and what it is, often there is doubt about the third no less than about the first, as in this case, whether the word for dog in the feminine was at first canis or canes: for in the older writers the expression is one canes. Therefore Ennius writes the following, using canes:
Barks just as loud as a pregnant bitch: but she’s toothless.
Lucilius also uses canes:
Worthless man and huge, like the monstrous dog of the butchers.
When applied to one, the word should have been canis, and when applied to several it should have been canes; but Ennius ought not to be blamed for following the earlier custom, nor should he who now says:
Canis ‘dog’ doesn’t eat dog-flesh.
But because dogs by their barking give the signal, as it were, canunt ‘sound’ the signals, they are called canes; and because by this noise they make known the things which latent ‘are hidden’ in the night, their barking is called latratus.
33. As some have said canes in the singular, so others have said trabes ‘beam, ship’ in the singular:
The beakèd trabes is driven by oars through the waters.
Ennius used trabes in the following:
I would the trabes of the fir-tree ne’er had fall’n To earth, in Pelion’s forest, by the axes cut!
But now the nominative singular of this word has lost a vowel and become trabs.
34. In the Medus:
Long awaited, Camilla of the gods, thou comest; guest, all hail!
A Camilla, according to those who have interpreted difficult words, is a handmaid assistant; one ought to add, in matters of a more secret nature: therefore at a marriage he is called a camillus who carries the box the contents of which are unknown to most of the uninitiated persons who perform the service. From this, the name Casmilus is given, in the Samothracian mysteries, to a certain divine personage who attends upon the Great Gods. The word, I think, is Greek, because I have found it in the poems of Callimachus.
35. In Ennius there is the verse:
Once a subulo was standing by the stretches of the sea.
Subulo is said, because that is the name which the Etruscans give to pipers; therefore the roots of the word are to be sought in Etruria, not in Latium.
36. With those verses which once the Fauns used to sing, and the poets. Fauni ‘Fauns’ are divinities of the Latins, of both sexes, so that there are both Faunus and Fauna; the story has come down that they, in the so-called Saturnian verses, were accustomed in well-wooded spots fori ‘to speak’ those events that were to come, from which speaking they were called Fauni. As for vates ‘poets,’ the old writers used to give this name to poets from viere ‘to plait’ verses, as I shall show when I write about poems.
37. Born of a Tartarine body, the warrior maiden Paluda. Tartarinum ‘Tartarine’ is derived from Tartarus. Plato in his Fourth Dialogue, speaking of the rivers which are in the world of the dead, gives Tartarus as the name of one of them; therefore the origin of Tartarus is Greek. Paluda is from paludamenta, which are distinguishing garments and adornments in the army; therefore when the general goes forth to war and the lictors have changed their garb and have sounded the signals, he is said to set forth paludatus ‘wearing the paludamentum.’ The reason why these garments are called paludamenta is that those who wear them are on account of them conspicuous and are made palam ‘plainly’ visible.
38. Plautus has this:
Epeus the maker of smoke, who for our army gets The well-cooked food.
Epeus fumificus ‘the smoke-maker’ was a cook, named from that Epeus who is said to have made the Trojan Horse at Troy and to have looked after the food of the Greeks.
39. In Naevius is the verse:
And sooner will a lobster give birth to a Luca bos.
Luca bos is an elephant; why it is thus called, I have found set forth by the authors in two ways. For in the Commentary of Cornelius was the statement that Lucas is from Libyci ‘the Libyans,’ and in that of Vergilius, that Lucas was from Lucani ‘the Lueanians’: from the fact that our compatriots used to call the largest quadruped that they themselves had, a bos ‘cow’; and so, when among the Lucanians, in the war with Pyrrhus, they first saw elephants in the ranks of the enemy — that is, horned quadrupeds like wise (for what many call teeth are really horns), they called the animal a Luca bos, because they thought it a Lucana bos ‘Lucanian cow.’
40. If the Lucae boves were really named from Libya, quite probably panthers also and lions would be called not African beasts, but Lucae ‘Lucan’; and bears are no more Lucanian than Lucan, though they are called Lucanian. Therefore I rather think that Lucas is from lux ‘light,’ because the elephants glistened afar on account of the gilded royal shields, with which their towers at that time were adorned.
41. In Ennius there is this:
Back without peace comes th’ orátor, hands back to his ruler the business.
Orator ‘spokesman’ is said from oratio ‘speech’; for he who was to present a verbal plea before the one to whom he was sent as envoy, was called an orator, from oratio. When the business was of greater import, year thrown into the Tiber from the Bridge-on-Piles, by the priests, acting on behalf of the state. These are called tutulati ‘provided with tutuli,’ since they at the sacrifices are accustomed to have on their heads something like a conical marker; this is called a tutulus from the fact that the twisted locks of hair which the matrons wear on the tops of their heads wrapped with a woollen band, used to be called tutuli, whether named from the fact that this was done for the purpose of tueri ‘protecting’ the hair, or because that which is highest in the city, namely the Citadel, was called tutissimum ‘safest.’
45. He says that this same Pompilius created the flamens or special priests, every one of whom gets a distinguishing name from one special god: in certain cases the sources are clear, for example, why one is called Martial and another Quirinal; but there are others who have titles of quite hidden origin, as most of those in these verses:
The Volturnal, Palatual, the Furinal, and Floral, Falacrine and Pomonal this ruler likewise created; and these are obscure. Their origins are Volturnus, the divine Palatua, Furrina, Flora, Father Falacer, Pomona.
46. In Ennius is this verse:
Now the beasts were about to give cry, their shrill-toned signals.
In this, cata ‘shrill-toned’ is acuta ‘sharp or pointed,’ for the Sabines use the word in this meaning; therefore Keen Aelius Sextus does not mean ‘sage,’ as they say, but ‘sharp’; and in the verse Then he began to say at the same time words that werecata, the cata words must be understood as sharp or pointed.
47. In Lucilius are the following:
What then? A tunny caught, they throw the goby out.
And Sauces of salted perch and of catfish are killing you, Lupus.
And That you take a... and a bonito.
These words are names of fishes; they originated in Greece.
48. In Ennius we find:
What the hollow caldron takes back in its skybluish belly.
Cava cortina ‘hollow caldron’ is thus said because that which is between earth and sky is somewhat in the shape of Apollo’s tripod-caldron; cortina is derived from cor ‘heart,’ because it is from this caldron that the first fortune-telling lots are believed to have been taken.
49. In Ennius we find:
Nay even, they carried them off from there despite the foes. The enemy are called perduelles ‘foes’; as perfecit ‘accomplished’ is formed from per ‘through, thoroughly’ and fecit ‘did,’ so perduellis is formed from per and duellum ‘war’: this word afterward became bellum. From the same reason, Duellona Goddess of War’ became Bellona.
50. In Plautus is this:
Not the Collar-Bone nor Evening-Star nor Pleiads now do set.
Iugula ‘Collar-Bone’ is a constellation, which Accius calls Orion when he says:
More quickly now Orion comes to sight.
The head of this constellation is said to consist of three stars, below which are two bright stars which they call the Shoulders; the space between them is the neck, as it were, and is called the Iugula ‘Collar-Bone. Vesperugo ‘Evening-Star’ is the star which rises vespere ‘in the evening,’ from which Opillus writes its name as Vesper: therefore the word is said in a second meaning:
Vesper is here, he whom the Greeks call the Evening-time Deity.
51. Naevius has the following:
She addresses her own father, the best and the supreme. Supremum is derived from superrimum, superlative of superum ‘higher’: therefore the Twelve Tables say:
Let the last (suprema) time of day be at sunset.
The Books of the Augurs call the last time for augury a tempestus and not a tempestas.
52. In The Story of the Helmet-Horn is the verse:
Who for ten years fought for wages (latrocinatus) for the King Demetrius.
Those were called latrones ‘mercenaries’ from latus ‘side,’ who were at the King’s side and had a sword at their own side (afterwards they called them stipatores ‘body-guards’ from stipatio ‘close attendance’) and were hired for pay: for this pay is in Greek called λάτρον. From this, the old poets sometimes call regular soldiers latrones. But now the name latrones is given to the highwaymen who block the roads, because like regular soldiers they have swords, or else because they latent ‘lie in hiding’ to ambush their victims.
53. In Naevius:
I laughed inside to see a drunk go tottering.
Cassabundum ‘tottering,’ from cadere ‘to fall.’ The same author has this:
Slippers on his feet he wore, he was wrapped about with a saffron robe.
Both words (diabathra ‘slippers’ and epicrocum ‘saffron robe’) are Greek.
54. In The Menaechmi:
Why, you’d bid me sit among the maids at work and card the wool.
This same word carere ‘to card’ is in the Cemetria of Naevius. Cārĕre is from cārĕre ‘to lack,’ because then they cleanse the wool and spin it into thread, that it may carere ‘be free’ from dirt: from which the wool is said carminari ‘to be carded’ then when they carunt ‘card’ out of it that which sticks in It and is not wool, those things which in the Romulus Naevius calls asta, from the Oscans.
55. In The Persian:
Now sure he’ll be here at once, I think, my jolly chum.
Congerro ‘chum,’ from gerra ‘wickerwork’; this is a Greek word, the Latin equivalent of which is cratis 56. In The Menaechmi:
The others enrolled as extras in the army are treated just that way.
Ascriptivi ‘enrolled as extras’ were so called because in the past men who did not receive arms ascribebantur ‘used to be enrolled as extras,’ to take the place of the regularly armed soldiers if any of them should be killed.
57. In The Three Shillings:
For I clearly see In him a ferentarius friend has been found for you.
Ferentarius, from ferre ‘to bring’ that which is not empty and profitless; or because those were called ferentarii cavalrymen who had only weapons which ferrentur ‘were to be thrown,’ such as a javelin. Cavalrymen of this kind I have seen in a painting in the old temple of Aesculapius, with the label “ferentarii.”
58. In The Story of the Trifles:
Where are you, rorarii? Behold, they’re here. Where are the accensi? See, they’re here.
Rorarii ‘skirmishers’ were those who started the battle, named from the ros ‘dew-drops,’ because it rorat ‘sprinkles’ before it really rains. The accensi, Cato writes, were attendants; the word may be from censio ‘opinion,’ that is, from arbitrium ‘decision,’ for the accensus is present to do the arbitrium of him whose attendant he is.
59. Pacuvius says:
When the gods’ portents triply strong...
60. In The Trader:
That’s no more a dividia to you than’twas to me to-day.
(This word was used by Naevius in The Story of the Garland, in the same meaning.) Dividia ‘vexation’ is said from dividere ‘to divide,’ because the distractio ‘pulling asunder’ caused by pain is a division; therefore the same author says in the Curculio:
But what’s the matter? — Stitch in the side, an aching back, And my lungs are torn asunder.
61. In the Pagon:
Respect for hash is gone, for haunch of ham, for chops.
Syncerastum ‘hash’ is all kinds of food mixed together, under an old Greek name.
62. In The Lazy Hanger-on:
I started to go home by a side-way to the right.
Trames ‘side-way’ is said from transversum ‘turned across.’
63. In The Runaways:
Then come and look, and see what welts. — I’ve looked now; well, what next?
Vibices ‘welts,’ the flesh of the body raised high by lashes.
64. In The Story of the Trinket-Box:
As if they aren’t here now, the dark and dirty slugs.
Limax ‘slug’ from limits ‘slimy mud,’ because it lives there.
Diobolous women, rush-perfumed, quite wonder-foul. Diobolares ‘diobolous,’ from two obols apiece. Schoenicolae ‘rush-perfumed,’ from schoenus ‘aromatic rush,’ an unpleasant perfumed ointment. Miraculae ‘wonder-foul,’ from mira ‘wonderful things,’ that is, monstrosities; from which Accius says:
Plautus, Frag. 108 Ritschl. Misshapen masks with twisted features, ugly wonders (miriones).
65. In the same writer:
Just withered women, limping, tottering, worthless quite.
Scratiae ‘withered women,’ from excreare ‘to cough and spit,’ indicates those that are siccae ‘dried up.’ Scrupipeda ‘limping,’ Aurelius writes, is from scauripeda ‘having swollen ankles’; Juventius the writer of comedies said that it was from a hairy caterpillar which is found on foliage and has many pedes ‘feet’; Valerius derived it from pes ‘foot’ and scrupea ‘difficulty.’ From this Accius has set it down in an interesting way: thus there is in the Melanippus the verse:
You throw your scruples off? A difficulty you’d take upon your back.
Strittabillae is from strettillare, itself from strittare, said of a person who with difficulty keeps on his feet.
66. In The Riding-Saddle:
Wives united make their husbands’ harvest dear instead of cheap.
So in The Bucket-Cleaner the same writer says:
My darling wife a woman is: As I have learned, I know how unionist she is. Claudius writes that women who make joint entreaties are clearly shown to be axitiosae ‘united, unionist.’ Axitiosae is from agere ‘to act’: as factiosae ‘partisan women ‘are named from facere ‘doing’ something in unison, so axitiosae are named from agere ‘acting’ together, as though actiosae.
67. In the Cesistio:
For the gods the thigh-meats or the lewd parts from the loins.
Stribula ‘thigh-meats,’ as Opillus writes, are the fleshy parts of cattle around the hips; the word is Greek, derived from the fact that in this place there is a socket-joint.
68. In The Story of the Prison Ropes:
At once I with my rasp did scrape the old fellow clean.
Scobina ‘rasp,’ from scobis ‘sawdust’; for a file belongs to a carpenter’s equipment.
69. In The Little Man from Carthage:
You’d outdo the stag in running or the stilt-walker in stride.
Grallator ‘stilt-walker’ is said from his great gradus ‘stride.’
70. In The Rough Customer:
Although without a deed of bravery I may have A clear-toned citizen as leader of my praise.
Praefica ‘praise-leader,’ as Aurelius writes, is a name applied to a woman from the grove of Libitina, who was to be hired to sing the praises of a dead man in front of his house. That this was regularly done, is stated by Aristotle in his book entitled Customs of Foreign Nations; whereto there is the testimony which is in The Strait of Naevius:
Dear me, I think, the woman’s a praefica: it’s a dead man she is praising.
Claudius writes:
A woman who praeficeretur ‘was to be put in charge’ of the maids as to how they should perform their lamentations, was called a praefica.
Both passages show that the praefica was named from praefectio ‘appointment as leader.’
71. In Ennius we find:
Treasures which ten of the Coclites buried, High on the tops of Rhiphaean mountains.
Codes ‘one-eyed’ was derived from oculus ‘eye,’ as though ocles, and denoted a person who had only one eye; therefore in the Curculio there is this:
I think that you are from the race of Coclites; For they are one-eyed.
72. Now I shall speak of terms denoting time. In the phrase of Cassius, By dead of night he came unto our home, intempesta nox ‘dead of night’ is derived from tempestas, and tempestas from tempus ‘time’: a nox intempesta ‘un-timely night’ is a time at which no activity goes on.
73. What time of the night doth it seem? — In the shield Of the sky, that soundeth aloft, lo the Pole Of the Wain outstrippeth the stars as on high More and more it driveth its journey of night.
Here the author wishes to indicate that the night is advanced, from the motion of the Temo ‘Wagon-Pole’; but the origin of Temo and the reason for its use, are hidden. My opinion is that in old times the farmers first noticed certain signs in the sky which were more conspicuous than the rest, and which were observed as suitable to indicate some profitable use, such as the time for tilling the fields.
74. The marks of this one are, that the Greeks, for example Homer, call these seven stars the Wagon and the sign that is next to it the Ploughman, while our countrymen call these seven stars the Triones ‘Plough-Oxen’ and the Temo ‘Wagon-Pole’ and near them the Axis ‘axle of the earth, north pole’: for indeed oxen are called triones by the ploughmen even now, especially when they are ploughing the land; just as those of them which easily cleave the glebae ‘clods of earth’ are called Mighty glebarii ‘clod-breakers,’
so all that ploughed the land were from terra ‘land’ called terriones, so that from this they were called triones, with loss of the E.
75. Temo is derived from tenere ‘to hold’: for it continet ‘holds together’ the yoke and the cart, the whole being named from a part, as is true of many things. The name triones may perhaps have been given because the seven stars are so placed that the sets of three stars make triangles.
76. I see some light in the sky — can it be dawn? The morning-star is called iubar, because it has at the top a diffused light, just as a lion has on his head a iuba ‘mane.’ Its rising indicates that it is about the end of the night. Therefore Pacuvius says:
When morning-star appears and night has run her course.
77. Plautus has this in The Lazy Hanger-on:
From there to here, right drunk, he came, at early dusk.
Crepusculum ‘dusk’ is a word taken from the Sabines, and it is the time when there is doubt whether it belongs to the night or to the day. Therefore in The Finger-Ring there is this:
So at dusk, the time when wild beasts make their love, light up your lamps.
Therefore doubtful matters were called creperae.
78. In The Three Shillings:
General resting time of night’twould be, before you reached its end.
Concubium ‘general rest’ is said from concubitus ‘general lying-down’ for the purpose of sleeping.
79. In The Story of the Ass there is this verse:
I’ll see to it, I wish it done; come back at conticinium.
I rather think that conticinium ‘general silence’ is from conticiscere ‘to become silent,’ or else, as Opillus writes, from that time when men conticuerunt ‘have become silent.’
80. Now I shall speak of those things which have an added meaning of occurrence at some special time, when they are said or done.
In Accius:
The elastic weapon bring into action, bending it With horse-hair string.
Reciproca ‘elastic’ is a condition which is present when a thing returns to the position from which it has started. Reciprocare ‘to move to and fro’ is made from recipere ‘to take back,’ or else because procare was said for poscere ‘to demand.’
81. In Plautus:
How sidewise, as a crab is wont, he moves, Not straight ahead.
Proversus ‘straight ahead’ is said of a man who is turned toward that which is in front of him; and therefore he who is going out into the vestibule, which is at the front of the house, is said prodire ‘to go forth’ or procedere ‘to proceed.’ But since the brothel-keeper was not doing this, but was going sidewise along the wall, Plautus said “How sidewise he moves like a crab, not proversus ‘turned straight ahead’ like a man.”
82. In Ennius:
Who gave Andromache her name, he gave aright.
Likewise:
Therefore Paris now the shepherds as Alexander do address.
In wishing to imitate Euripides and set down the radical, he fell into an error; for because Euripides wrote in Greek the radicals are obvious. Euripides says that Andromache received her name because she ἀνδρὶ μάχεται ‘fights her husband’: who can understand that this is what Ennius means in the verse Who gave Andromache her name, he gave aright?
Or that he who had been Paris was in Greece called Alexander from the same source from which Hercules also was termed Alexicacos ‘Averter of evils’ — namely from the fact that he was a defender of men?
83. In Accius:
And now afar off I see that the dawn Is red.
Aurora ‘dawn’ is said of the phenomenon before sunrise, from the fact that the air aurescit ‘grows golden’ from the sun’s fire, which at that time is golden. As for his addition of rutilare ‘to be red,’ that is from the same colour; for rutuli is an expression for golden hair, and from that also women with extremely red hair are called rutilae ‘Goldilocks.’
84. In Terence:
He whores, he drinks, he’s scented up at my expense.
Scortari ‘to whore’ is to consort quite frequently with a harlot, who gets her name scortum from pellis ‘skin’: for not only did the ancients call a skin scortum, but even now we say scortea for things which are made of leather and skins. In some sacrifices and chapels we find the prescription:
Let nothing scorteum ‘made of hide’ be brought in, with this intent, that nothing dead should be there. In the Atellan farces you may notice that the countrymen say that they have brought home a pellicula rather than a scortum.
85. In Accius:
By invoking your name And your numen with many a prayer.
Numen ‘divine will or sway,’ they say, is imperium ‘power,’ and is derived from nutus ‘nod,’ because he at whose nutus ‘nod’ everything is, seems to have the greatest imperium ‘power’; therefore Homer uses this word in application to Jupiter, and so does Accius a number of times.
86. In Plautus:
There’s one thing I except: The olive-salad there is eaten just like mad.
Epityrum ‘olive-salad’ is the name of a food which was commoner in Sicily than in Italy. When he wanted to say that this was eaten impetuously, he said insane ‘crazily,’ because the crazy do everything impetuously.
87. In Pacuvius:
Deeply affected, as though frenzied by the Nymphs Or stirred by Bacchus’ ceremonies.
Lymphata ‘frenzied by the Nymphs’ is said from lympha ‘water, water-goddess,’ and lympha is from Nympha ‘water-nymph,’ as for example Thetis among the Greeks, mentioned by Ennius:
Thelis was his mother.
Persons of disturbed (commota) mind, whom in Greece they call νυμφόληπτοι ‘seized by the Nymphs,’ our fellow-countrymen from this called lymphati. Bacchi ‘of Bacchus,’ who is called also Liber; his followers were called Bacchae ‘Bacchantes,’ from Bacchus; and wine was in Spain called bacca.
88. All these are of Greek origin, as is also that which is in the verse of Pacuvius:
I roam, in halcyon fashion b frequenting the shore.
For this bird is now called in Greek the halcyon, and by our fellow-countrymen the alcedo ‘kingfisher’; because it is said to hatch its young in winter, at a time when the sea is calm, they call these days the Halcyonia ‘Halcyon Days. As for the expression alcyonis ritu ‘in halcyon fashion’ in the verse, this means “according to the habit of that bird,” as when the seer directs the making of each sacrifice in its own ritus ‘fashion,’ and we say that the Board of Fifteen conduct the ceremonies in the Greek ritus ‘fashion,’ not in the Roman fashion. For what is done rite ‘duly,’ that is ratum ‘valid’ and rectum ‘right.’; from this, Accius wishes When the ceremonies have been rite ‘duly’ performed to be understood as recte ‘rightly’ performed.
89. In Ennius:
If you’ll give me your attention,’twill be courteously explained.
Comiter ‘courteously’ means cheerfully and willingly; it is derived from the Greek word κῶμος ‘merry-making,’ from which come the Latin comissatio ‘revel’ and in Greek, as certain authorities write, κωμῳδία ‘comedy.’
90. In Atilius:
Take it, Lydus, cut it, fix it, season it.
Cape ‘take,’ the same word from which comes the compound accipe ‘receive’; but this must be taken up again in the next book.
91. In Pacuvius:
There’s no device Which can tame or cure the business or remake it new.
Cicurare ‘to tame’ is the same as mansuefacere ‘to make tame’; for what is distinct from the ferum ‘wild’ is called cicur ‘tame,’ and therefore the saying A cicur nature I possess means a tame or civilized nature; from which the nobles of the Veturian clan had the added name Cicurinus. Cicur seems to be derived from ciccus; ciccus is the name which they gave to the thin membrane which is the division between the sections in, for example, a pomegranate; from which moreover Plautus says:
But that he wants his rations, I don’t care a whit.
92. In Naevius:
I see I’m nigh encircled by unrighteousness.
Ferme ‘nigh’ is said for that which is now fere ‘approximately’; both are derived from ferre ‘to bear,’ because that which fertur ’is borne’ is in motion and approaches some goal.
93. In Plautus:
‘Ray! by my wordy strife my wife at last I’ve driven from the door. Euax ‘hurray!’ is a word that in itself means nothing, but is a natural ejaculation, like that in Ennius:
Aha, his very shield did fall!
Also in Ennius:
Bravo, my child! That’s happened better than you hoped.
In Pompilius:
Alas! O Fortune, why do you crush me hostilely?
As for iurgio ‘by wordy strife,’ that is litibus ‘by contentions’: therefore men between whom a matter was in dispute, called this a lis ‘suit’; therefore in legal actions we see it said:
Matter or suit to which one must make a plea.
From this, you may see that iurgare ‘to contend in words’ is said from ius ‘right,’ when a person litigaret ‘went to law’ iure ‘with right’; from which he obiurgat ‘rebukes,’ who does this iuste ‘with justice.’
94. In Lucilius:
And if some of the things any stole for themselves from the forum.
He said clepsere ‘stole,’ from the same source whence others say clepere, that is ‘to snatch away’; they come from clam ‘secretly,’ giving clapere and then clepere, with change of A to E, as in many words. But clepere can quite well be said from Greek κλέπτειν ‘to steal.’
95. In Matius:
Grief he felt that the bodies of Greeks were chewed by the fire.
Mandier ‘to be chewed’ is said from mandere ‘to chew,’ whence manducari ‘to chew,’ from which also in the Atellan Farces they call Dossennus ‘Humpback’ by the name Manducus ‘Chewer.’
96. In Matius:
He the interpreter, sponsor of foul and funereal omen.
Obscaenum ‘foul’ is said from scaena ‘stage’; this word Accius writes scena, like the Greeks. In a considerable number of words some set A before the E, and others do not; so what some spell scaeptrum ‘sceptre,’ others spell sceptrum, and some spell the name of Plautus’s play Faeneratrix ‘The Woman Money-lender,’ others Feneratrix. Similarly faenisicia ‘mown hay’ and fenisicia; and the countrymen call the old man’s character Mesius, not Maesius, from which peculiarity Lucilius is able to write:
Cecilius let’s not elect to be countrified pretor. Wherefore anything shameful is called obscaenum, because it ought not to be said openly except on the scaena ‘stage.’
97. Perhaps it is from this that a certain indecent object that is hung on the necks of boys, to prevent harm from coming to them, is called a scaevola, on account of the fact that scaeva is ‘good.’ It is named from scaeva, that is sinistra ‘left,’ because those things which are sinistra ‘on the left side’ are considered to be good auspices; from which it is said that an assembly or anything else takes place, as I have said, with scaeva avi ‘a bird on the left side,’ which is now called sinistra. The word is from the Greek, because they call the left side σκαιά; wherefore, as I have said, an obscaenum omen is a foul omen: omen itself, because that by which it is spoken is the os ‘mouth,’ is by origin osmen, from which S has been worn away by use.
98. In Plautus:
Since long ago I loved you and decided you’re my friend.
Crevi ‘I decided’ is the same as constitui ‘I established’: therefore when an heir has established that he is the heir, he is said cernere ‘to decide,’ and when he has done this, he is said crevisse ‘to have decided.’
99. In the same author, the word frequentem ‘frequent’ in Frequent aid you gave me means assiduam ‘busily present’: therefore he who is at hand assiduus ‘constantly present’ fere et quoin ‘generally and when’ he ought to be, he is frequens, as the opposite of which infrequens is wont to be used. Therefore that which these same girls say:
Dear me, at that price that you say it is easy For one who desires it to be frequently with us; So nicely and elegantly you received us At luncheon, clearly means: it is easy to get us to be constantly present at your house, since you entertain us so well.
100. In Ennius:
Resolved are they to stand and be dug through their bodies with javelins.
This verb fodare ‘to dig’ which Ennius used, was made from fodere ‘to dig,’ from which comes fossa ‘ditch.’
101. In Ennius:
With words destroy him, crush him if he make a sound. Mussare ‘to make a sound’ is said because the muti ‘mute’ say nothing more than mu; from which the same poet uses this for that which is least:
And, as they say, not even a mu dare they utter.
102. In Pacuvius:
May the gods advise thee of better things to do, and thy madness sweep away!
Averruncare ‘to sweep away’ is from avertere ‘to avert,’ just as the god who presides over such matters is called Averruncus. Therefore men are wont to pray of him that he avert dangers.
103. In The Story of the Money-Jar:
By my cheeping I’ll bring you into disrepute before the house.
This pipulus ‘cheeping’ is convicium ‘reviling,’ derived from the pipatus ‘cheeping’ of chicks. Many terms are transferred from the cries of animals to men, of which some are obvious and others are obscure. Among the clear terms are the following: Ennius’s For it his mind and his heart both are barking.
Plautus’s The odious fellow yelps at all his household, every one.
Caecilius’s To bleat the thing abroad, so that he thought it nought. Lucilius’s This, I say, he’ll bray from the stand and lament to the public.
The same poet’s How much neighing and prancing like horses.
104. Less clear are the following, such as that of Porcius, an expression derived from wolves:
To flutter while howling.
That of Ennius, from calves:
The piper-girl doth bleat with great to-do.
That of the same poet, from oxen:
Bellowing with uproar.
That of the same poet, from lions:
A stop they made of the roaring.
That of the same poet, from young goats:
Shouting rolls to the sky and wails through the ether.
That of Sueius, from blackbirds:
From’midst the leaves he snaps his bill and sweetly chirps. That of Maccius in the Casina, from finches:
What do you twitter for? What’s that you wish so eagerly?
That of Sueius, from birds:
So he’ll bring the snappers fairly into court and not To the judgement of Aesopus and the audience.
105. In The Flatterer:
A bound obligation...
Nexum’bound obligation,’ Manilius writes, is everything which is transacted by cash and balance-scale, including rights of ownership: but Mucius defines it as those things which are done by copper ingot and balance-scale in such a way that they rest under formal obligation, except when delivery of property is made under formal taking of possession. That the latter is the truer interpretation, is shown by the very word about which the inquiry is made: for that copper which is placed under obligation according to the balance-scale and does not again become independent (nec suum) of this obligation, is from that fact said to be nexum ‘bound.’ A free man who, for money which he owed, nectebat ‘bound’ his labour in slavery until he should pay, is called a nexus ‘bondslave,’ just as a man is called obaeratus ‘indebted,’ from aes ‘money-debt.’ When Gaius Poetelius Libo Visulus was dictator, this method of dealing with debtors was done away with, and all who took oath by the Good Goddess of Plenty were freed from being bondslaves.
106. In the Casina:
Let him go and make love, let him do what he will, As long as at home you have nothing amiss.
Nihil delicuum ‘nothing amiss’ is said from this, that things are not ad deliquandum ‘in need of straining out’ the admixtures, as those which are turbid are strained, that they may become liquida ‘clear.’ Aurelius writes that delicuum is from liquidum ‘clear’; Claudius, that it is from eliquatum ‘strained.’ Anyone who prefers to follow either of them will have an authority to back him up.
In Atilius:
With joy his mind is melted.
Liquitur ’is melted’ is formed from liquare ‘to melt.’
107. I am quite aware that there are many words still remaining in the poets, whose origins could be set forth; as in Naevius, in the Hesione, the tip of a sword is called lingula, from lingua ‘tongue’ in the Clastidium, vitulantes ‘singing songs of victory,’ from Vitula ‘Goddess of Joy and Victory’; in The Artifice, caperrata froute ‘with wrinkled forehead,’ from the forehead of a capra ‘she-goat’; in the Demetrius persibus ‘very knowing,’ from perite ‘learnedly’: therefore under this rare word they write callide ‘shrewdly’; in the Lampadio, protinam ‘forthwith’ from protinus (of the same meaning), indicating lack of interruption in time or place; in the Nagido, clucidatus ‘sweetened,’ although we have been told by the teachers that it means ‘tame’; in the Romulus, consponsus, meaning a person who has been asked to make a counter-promise; in The Branded Slave praebia ‘amulets,’ from praebere ‘providing’ that he may be safe, because they are prophylactics to be hung on boys’ necks; in The Craftsman, confictant ‘they unite on a tale,’ said from agreeing on a confictum ‘fabrication.’
108. Also, in The Girl of Tarentum, praelucidum ‘very brilliant,’ from lux ‘light,’ meaning ‘shining’; in The Story of the Shirt, They shake the jars that make the lots jump out, ecbolicas ‘causing to jump out,’ because of the lots which are cast out, is said from the Greek word ἐκβολή; and in The Punic War Not even quite sardare ‘to understand like a Sardinian,’ where sardare is said from serare ‘to bolt,’ that is, sardare means ‘to open’; from this also sera ‘bolt,’ on the removal of which the doors are opened.
109. But because I fear that there will be more who will blame me for writing too much of this sort than will accuse me of omitting certain items, I think that this roll must now rather be compressed than hammered out to greater length: no one is blamed who in the cornfield has left the stems for the gleaning. Therefore as I had arranged six books on how Latin names were set upon things for our use: of these I dedicated three to Publius Septumius who was my quaestor, and three to you, of which this is the third — the first three on the doctrine of the origin of words, the second three on the origins of words. Of those which precede, the first roll contains the arguments which are offered as to why Etymology is not a branch of learning and is not useful; the second contains the arguments why it is a branch of learning and is useful; the third states what the nature of etymology is.
110. In the second three which I sent to you, the subjects are likewise divided off: first, that in which the origins of words for places are set forth, and for those things which are wont to be in places; second, with what words times are designated and those things which are done in times; third, the present book, in which words are taken from the poets in the same way as those which I have mentioned in the other two books were taken from prose writings. Therefore, since I have made three parts of the whole work On the Latin Language, first how names were set upon things, second how the words are declined in cases, third how they are combined into sentences — as the first part is now finished, I shall make an end to this book, that I may be able to commence the second part.