Delphi Complete Works of Varro

by Marcus Terentius Varro

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.

  BOOK VIII

  One Book of Arguments which are advanced against the Existence of the Principle of Analogy 1. Speech is naturally divided into three parts, as I have shown in the previous books: its first part is how names were imposed upon things; its second, in what way the derivatives of these names have arrived at their differences; its third, how the words, when united with one another reasonmgly, express an idea. Having set forth the first part, I shall from here begin upon the second. As every offshoot is secondary by nature, because that vertical trunk from which it comes is primary, and it is therefore declined: so there is declension in words: homo ‘man’ is the vertical, hominis ‘man’s’ is the oblique, because it is declined from the vertical.

  2. From the manifold nature of this sort there are these causes of the differences: for what reason, and to what product, and in what way, in speaking, the words are declined. The first two of these I shall pass over briefly, for two reasons: because there will have to be a rehandling of the topics when I write of the stock of words, and because the third of them has numerous and extensive subdivisions of its own.

  3. Inflection has been introduced not only into Latin speech, but into the speech of all men, because it is useful and necessary; for if this system had not developed, we could not learn such a great number of words as we have learned — for the possible forms into which they are inflected are numerically unlimited — nor from those which we should have learned would it be clear what relationship existed between them so far as their meanings were concerned. But as it is, we do see, for the reason that that which is the offshoot bears a similarity to the original: when legi ‘I have gathered’ is inflected from lego ‘I gather,’ two things are clear at the same time, namely that in some fashion the acts are said to be the same, and yet that their doing did not take place at the same time. But if, for the sake of a word, one of these two related ideas was called Priamus and the other Hecuba, there would be no indication of the unity of idea which is clear in lego and legi, and in nominative Priamus, dative Priamo.

  4. As among men there are certain kinships, some through the males, others through the clan, so there are among words. For as from an Aemilius were sprung the men named Aemilius, and the clan-members of the name, so from the name of Aemilius were inflected the words in the noun-clan: for from that name which was imposed in the nominative case as Aemilius were made Aemilii, Aemilium, Aemilios, Aemiliorum, and in this way also all the other words which are of this same line.

  5. The origins of words are therefore two in number, and no more: imposition and inflection; the one is as it were the spring, the other the brook. Men have wished that imposed nouns should be as few as possible, that they might be able to learn them more quickly; but derivative nouns they have wished to be as numerous as possible, that all might the more easily say those nouns which they needed to use.

  6. In connexion with the first class, a historical narrative is necessary, for except by outright learning such words do not reach us; for the other class, the second, a grammatical treatment is necessary, and for this there is need of a few brief maxims. For the scheme by which you have learned to inflect in the instance of one noun, you can employ in a countless number of nouns: therefore when new nouns have been brought into common use, the whole people at once utters their declined forms without any hesitation. Moreover, those who have freshly become slaves and on purchase become members of a large household, quickly inflect the names of all their fellow-slaves in the oblique cases, provided only they have heard the nominative.

  7. If they sometimes make mistakes, it is not astonishing. Even those who first imposed names upon things perhaps made some slips in some instances: for they are supposed to have desired to designate things individually, that from these inflection might be made to indicate plurality, as homines ‘men’ from homo ‘man.’ They are supposed to have desired that male children be designated in such a way that from these the females might be indicated by inflection, as the feminine Terentia from the masculine Terentius; and that similarly from the names which they set in the nominative case, there might be other forms to which they could arrive by inflection. But they are supposed to have been unable to hold fast to these principles in everything, because the plural form scopae denotes either one or two brooms, and aquila ‘eagle’ denotes both the male and the female, and vis ‘force’ is used for the nominative and for an oblique case of the word.

  8. Why such words are not so much at fault as men think, it
is in most instances not hard to explain, but it is not necessary to do so at this time; for it is not how they have been able to arrive at the words, but how they wished to express themselves, that is of import for the subject which is before us: inasmuch as genitive scoparum can be no less easily derived from the plural scopae which they did impose on the object as its name, than if they had given it the name scopa in the singular, and made the genitive scopae from this — and other words likewise.

  9. The reason, I say, why they made these inflected forms from the names which they had set upon things, is that which I have shown; the next point is for me to sketch by classes, but briefly, the forms at which they have wished to arrive by inflection, or have not wished to arrive. For there are two classes of words, one fruitful, which by inflection produces from itself many different forms, as for example lego ‘I gather,’ legi ‘I have gathered,’ legam ‘I shall gather,’ and similarly other words; and a second class which is barren, which produces nothing from itself, as for example et ‘and,’ iam ‘now,’ vix ‘hardly,’ eras ‘to-morrow,’ magis ‘more,’ cur ‘why.’

  10. In those things whose use was simple, the inflection of the name also was simple; just as in a house where there is only one slave there is need of only one slave-name, but in a house where there are many slaves there is need of many such names. Therefore also in those things which are names, because the differentiations of the word are several, there are more offshoots, and in those things which are connectives and join words, because there was no need for them to be inflected into several forms, the words generally have but one form: for with one and the same thong you can fasten a man or a horse or anything else, whatever it is, which can be fastened to something else. Thus, for example, we say in our talking, “Tullius et ‘and’ Antonius were consuls”: with that same et we can link together any set of two consuls, or — to put it more strongly — any and all names, and even all words, while all the time that one-syllabled prop-word et remains unchanged. Therefore under nature’s guidance it has come about that we should not think that there are inflected forms from all these names which have been set upon things.