Delphi Complete Works of Varro
Page 51
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.