Marcus Terentius Varro on Latin Language (De lingua Latina)

Understanding Varro’s Etymology of Latin Words

Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BCE-24 BCE Italy)

Marcus Terentius Varro on Latin Language

Originally  Translated by Roland Grubb Kent (1877-1952)

(Books 5, 6, and 7)

5.1 I. BOOK V On the Science of the Origin of Words, addressed to Cicero

I set out to explain in six books the manner in which terms were imposed on things in the Latin language. Of these three things I have done before this, which I sent to Septumius: in which there is a discipline, which they call etymologiken: what was said against it, in the first volume, what was in favor of it, in the second, what was about it, and in the third. In these things I will write to you, from which things the terms have been imposed in the Latin language, and those which are in the custom of the people, and those which are found among the poets. (Quemadmodum vocabula essent imposita rebus in lingua Latina, sex libris exponere institui. De his tris ante hunc feci quos Septumio misi: in quibus est de disciplina, quam vocant etymologiken: quae contra eam dicerentur, volumine primo, quae pro ea, secundo, quae de ea, tertio. In his ad te scribam, a quibus rebus vocabula imposita sint in lingua Latina, et ea quae sunt in consuetudine apud populum et ea quae inveniuntur apud poetas.)

5.2 Since there are two natures of each word, from what subject and in what subject is the term imposed (and thus from what subject is persistence when it is required, it is shown to be by extension; in what subject is it imposed when it is shown, in which it should not be extended and extends, persistence, that in which it is necessary to remain, if it persists in it, there is perseverance), that first part, where why and whence words are scrutinized, the Greeks call etymology, that second part, seminomenon. Of these two things I shall speak promiscuously in these books, but more briefly about the latter.

5.3 These relations are often rather obscure for the following reasons: Not every word that has been applied, still exists, because lapse of time has blotted out some. Not every word that is in use, has been applied without inaccuracy of some kind, nor does every word which has been applied correctly remain as it originally was; for many words are disguised by change of the letters. There are some whose origin is not from native words of our own language. Many words indicate one thing now, but formerly meant something else, as is the case with hostis ‘enemy’: for in olden times by this word they meant a foreigner from a country independent of Roman laws, but now they give the name to him whom they then called perduellis ‘enemy.’

5.4 I shall take as starting-point of my discussion that derivative or case-form of the words in which the origin can be more clearly seen. It is evident that we ought to operate in this way, because when we say inpos ‘lacking power’ in the nominative, it is less clear that it is from potentia ‘power’ than when we say inpotem in the accusative; and it becomes the more obscure, if you say pos ‘having power’ rather than inpos; for pos seems to mean rather pons ‘bridge’ than potens ‘powerful.’

5.5 There are few things which lapse of time does not distort, there are many which it removes. Whom you saw beautiful as a boy, him you see unsightly in his old age. The third generation does not see a person such as the first generation saw him. Therefore those that oblivion has taken away even from our ancestors, the painstaking of Mucius and Brutus, though it has pursued the runaways, cannot bring back. As for me, even if I cannot track them down, I shall not be the slower for this, but even for this I shall be the swifter in the chase, if I can. For there is no slight darkness in the wood where these things are to be caught, and there are no trodden paths to the place which we wish to attain, nor do there fail to be obstacles in the paths, which could hold back the hunter on his way.

5.6 Whoever notices all the discordance of these new and old words in common usage, in how many ways the exchange has been made, will be able to more easily search the origins of the words: for he will find that they have been changed, as shown in the previous books, mainly for two or four reasons. For it is done by the reduction or addition of letters, and because of their crossing or exchange, likewise by the production or correction of syllables, and finally by addition or subtraction; which, since I have sufficiently shown examples of their kind in previous books, I thought it necessary to admonish them here.

5.7 Now I shall set forth the origins of the individual words, of which there are four levels of explanation. The lowest is that to which even the common folk has come; who does not see the sources of argentifodinae ‘silver-mines’ and of viocurus ‘road-overseer’? The second is that to which old-time grammar has mounted, which shows how the poet has made each word which he has fashioned and derived. (Nunc singulorum uerborum origines expediam, quorum quattuor explanandi gradus. Infimus quo populus etiam venit: quis enim non videt unde argentifodinae et viocurus? Secundus quo grammatica escendit antiqua, quae ostendit, quemadmodum quodque poeta finxerit uerbum, quod confinxerit, quod declinarit; hic Pacui:)

Here belongs Pacuvius’s:

The whistling of the ropes, here his
Incurvate-necked flock, here his
With his mantle he beshields his arm.

5.8 The third level is that to which philosophy ascended, and on arrival began to reveal the nature of those words which are in common use, as, for example, from what oppidum ‘town’ was named, and vicus ‘row of houses,’ and via ‘street.’ The fourth is that where the sanctuary is, and the mysteries of the high-priest: if I shall not arrive at full knowledge there, at any rate I shall cast about for a conjecture, which even in matters of our health the physician sometimes does when we are ill.

5.9 But if I have not reached the highest level, I shall none the less go farther up than the second, because I have studied not only by the lamp of Aristophanes, but also by that of Cleanthes. I have desired to go farther than those who expound only how the words of the poets are made up. For it did not seem meet that I seek the source in the case of the word which Ennius had made, and neglect that which long before King Latinus had made, in view of the fact that I get pleasure rather than utility from many words of the poets, and more utility than pleasure from the ancient words. And in fact are not those words mine which have come to me by inheritance from King Romulus, rather than those which were left behind by the poet Livius?

5.10 Therefore since words are divided into these three groups, those which are our own, those which are of foreign origin, and those which are obsolete and of forgotten sources, I shall set forth about our own why they are, about those of foreign origin whence they are, and as to the obsolete I shall let them alone: except that concerning some of them I shall none the less write what I have found or myself conjecture. In this book I shall tell about the words denoting places and those things which are in them; in the following book I shall tell of the words denoting times and those things which take place in them; in the third I shall tell of both these as expressed by the poets.

5.11 Pythagoras the Samian says that the primal elements of all things are in pairs, as finite and infinite, good and bad, life and death, day and night. Therefore likewise there are the two fundamentals, station and motion, each divided into four kinds: what is stationary or is in motion, is body; where it is in motion, is place; while it is in motion, is time; what is inherent in the motion, is action. The fourfold division will be clearer in this way: body is, so to speak, the runner, place is the race-course where he runs, time is the period during which he runs, action is the running.

5.12 Therefore it comes about that for this reason all things, in general, are divided into four phases, and these universal; because there is never time without there being motion — for even an intermission of motion is time —; nor is there motion where there is not place and body, because the latter is that which is moved, and the former is where; nor where this motion is, does there fail to be action.
Therefore place and body, time and action are the four-horse team of the elements.

5.13 Therefore because the primal classes of things are four in number, so many are the primal classes of words. From among these, concerning places and those things which are seen in them, I shall put a summary’ account in this book; but we shall follow them up wherever the kin of the word under discussion is, even if it has driven its roots beyond its own territory. For often the roots of a tree which is close to the line of the property have gone out under the neighbour’s cornfield. Wherefore, when I speak of places, I shall not have gone astray, if from ager ‘field’ I pass to an agrarius ‘agrarian’ man, and to an agricola ‘farmer.’ The partnership of words is one of many members: the Wine Festival cannot be set on its way without wine, nor can the Curia Calabra ‘Announcement Hall’ be opened without the calatio ‘proclamation.’

5.14 II. Among places, I shall begin with the origin of the word locus ‘place’ itself. Locus is where something can be locatum ‘placed,’ or as they say nowadays, collocatum ‘established.’ That the ancients were wont to use the word in this meaning, is clear in Plautus:
I have a grown-up daughter, lacking dower, unplaceable,
Nor can I place her now with anyone.
In Ennius we find:
O Thracian Land, where Bacchus’ fane renowned
Did Maro place.

5.15 Where anything comes to a standstill, is a locus ‘place.’ From this the auctioneer is said locare ‘to place’ because he is all the time likewise going on until the price comes to a standstill on someone.
Thence also is locamim ‘place-rent,’ which is given for a lodging or a shop, where the payers take their stand. So also loci muliebres ‘woman’s places,’ where the beginnings of birth are situated.

5.16 III. The primal places of the universe, according to the ancient division, are two, terra ‘earth’ and caelum ‘sky,’ and then, according to the division into items, there are many places in each. The places of the sky are called loca super a ‘upper places,’ and these belong to the gods; the places of the earth are loca infer a ‘lower places,’ and these belong to mankind. Caelum ‘sky’ is used in two ways, just as is Asia. For Asia means the Asia, which is not Europe, wherein is even Syria; and Asia means also that part of the aforementioned Asia, in which is Ionia and our province.

5.17 So caelum ‘sky’ is both a part of itself, the top where the stars are, and that which Pacuvius means when he points it out:
See this around and above, which holds in its embrace
The earth.
To which he adds:
That which the men of our days call the sky.
From this division into two, Lucilius set this as the start of his twenty-one books:
Seeking the time when the ether above and the earth were created.

5.18 Caelum, Aelius writes, was so called because it is caelatum ‘raised above the surface,’ or from the opposite of its idea, celatum ‘hidden’ because it is exposed; not ill the remark, that the one who applied the term took caelare ‘to raise’ much rather from caelum than caelum from caelare. But that second origin, from celare ‘to hide,’ could be said from this fact, that by day it celatur ‘is hidden,’ no less than that by night it is not hidden.

5.19 On the whole I rather think that from chaos came choum and then cavum ‘hollow,’ and from this caelum ‘sky,’ since, as I have said, this around and above, which holds in its embrace the earth, is the cavum caelum ‘hollow sky.’ And so Andromeda says to Night,
You who traverse the hollows of sky
With your chariot marked by the stars.
And Agamemnon says,
In the shield of the sky, that soundeth on high, for a shield is a hollow thing. And Ennius likewise, xwith reference to a cavern,
Enormous arches of the sky.

5.20 Wherefore as from cavum ‘hollow’ come cavea ‘cavity,’ and caullae ‘hole or passage,’ and convallis ‘enclosed valley’ as being a cavata vallis ‘hollowed valley,’ and cavernae ‘caverns’ from the cavatio ‘hollowing,’ as a cavum ‘hollow thing,’ so developed caelum ‘sky’ from cavum, which itself was from chaos, from which, in Hesiod, come all things.

5.21 IV. Terra ‘earth’ is — as Aelius writes — named from this fact, that it teritur ‘is trodden’; therefore it is written tera in the Books of the Augurs, with one R. From this, the place which is left near a town as common property for the farmers, is the territorium ‘territory,’ because it teritur ‘is trodden’ most. From this, the linen garment which teritur ‘is rubbed’ by the body, is an extermentarium. From this, in the harvest, is the tritura ‘threshing,’ because then the grain teritur ‘is rubbed out,’ and the tribulum ‘threshing-sledge,’ with which it teritur ‘is rubbed out.’ From this the boundaries of the fields are called termini, because those parts teruntur ‘are trodden’ most, on account of the boundary-lane.
Therefore this word is pronounced with I in some places in Latium, not terminus, but terimen, and this form is found in Accius: it is the same word which the Greeks call τέρμονα. Perhaps the Latin word comes from the Greek; for Evander, who came to the Palatine, was an Arcadian from Greece.

5.22 A via ‘road’ is indeed an iter ‘way,’ because it teritur ‘is worn down’ by vehendo ‘carrying in wagons’; an actus ‘driving-passage’ is likewise an iter, because it is worn down by agendo ‘driving of cattle.’ Moreover an ambitus ‘edge-road’ is an iter ‘way,’ because it teritur ‘is worn’ by the going around: for an edge-road is a circuit; from this the interpreters of the Twelve Tables define the ambitus of the wall as its circuit. Therefore tera, terra; and from this the poets have called the surface of the earth, which sola ‘alone’ can be trod, the sola ‘soil’ of the earth.

5.23 Humus ‘soil’ is, as they think, the same as terra ‘earth’; therefore, they say, Ennius meant men falling to the earth when he said,
With their elbows the soil they were smiting.
And because humus ‘soil’ is terra ‘earth,’ therefore he who is dead and covered with terra is humatus ‘inhumed.’ From this fact, if on the burial-mound of a Roman who has been burned on the pyre clods are not thrown, or if a bone of the dead man has been kept out for the ceremony of purifying the household, the household remains in mourning; in the latter case, until in the purification the bone is covered with humus — as the pontifices say,’ as long as he is in-humatus ‘not inhumed.’ Also he is called humilior ‘more humble,’ who is more downcast toward the humus; the lowest is said to be humillimus ‘most humble,’ because the humus is the lowest thing in the world.

5.24 From this comes also humor ‘moisture.’ So therefore Lucilius says:
Gone is the earth, disappeared into clouds and moisture.
Pacuvius says:
The land exhales a breeze and dawning damp; humida, the same as humecta ‘damp,’ From this, a marshy field is humidissimus ‘most damp’; from this, udus and uvidus ‘damp’; from this, sudor ‘sweat’ and udor ‘dampness.’

5.25 If this moisture is in the ground no matter how far down, in a place from which it pote ‘can’ be taken, it is a puteus ‘well’; unless rather because the Aeolians used to say, like — πύταμος for πόταμος ‘river,’ so also — πύτευς ‘well’ for ποτέος ‘drinkable,’ from potus ‘act of drinking,’ and not φρέαρ ‘well’ as they do now. From putei ‘wells’ comes the town-name, such as Puteoli, because around this place there are many hot and cold spring-waters; unless rather from putor ‘stench,’ because the place is often putidus ‘stinking’ with smells of sulphur and alum. Outside the towns there are puticuli ‘little pits,’ named from putei ‘pits,’ because there the people used to be buried in putei ‘pits’; unless rather, as Aelius writes, the puticuli are so called because the corpses which had been thrown out putescebant ‘used to rot’ there, in the public burial-place which is beyond the Esquiline. This place Afranius in a comedy of Roman life calls the Putiluci ‘pit-lights,’ for the reason that from it they look up through putei ‘pits’ to the lumen ‘light.’

5.26 A lacus ‘lake’ is a large lacuna ‘hollow,’ where water can be confined. A palus ‘swamp’ is a paululum ‘small amount’ of water as to depth, but spread quite widely palam ‘in plain sight.’ A stagnum ‘pool’ is from Greek, because they gave the name στεγνός ‘waterproof to that which has no fissure. From this, at farmhouses the stagna ‘pools are round, because a round shape most easily holds water in, but corners are extremely troublesome.

5.27 Fluvius ‘river’ is so named because it fluit ‘flows,’ and likewise flumen ‘river’: from which is written, according to the law of city estates,
Stillicidia ‘rain-waters’ and flumina ‘rivers’ shall be allowed to fall and to flow without interference.
Between these there is this difference, that stillicidium ‘rain-water’ is so named because it cadit ‘falls’ stillatim ‘drop by drop,’ and flumen ‘river’ because it fluit ‘flows’ uninterruptedly.

5.28 An amnis is that river which goes around something; for amnis is named from ambitus ‘circuit.’
From this, those who dwell around the Aternus are called Amiternini ‘men of Amiternum.’ From this, he who circum it ‘goes around’ the people as a candidate, ambit ‘canvasses,’ and he who does otherwise than he should, pleads his case in court as a result of his investigable ambitus ‘canvassing.’ Therefore the Tiber is called an amnis, because it ambit ‘goes around’ the Campus Martius and the City ; the town Interamna gets its name from its position inter amnis ‘between rivers’; likewise Antemnae, because it lies ante amnis ‘in front of the rivers,’ where the Anio flows into the Tiber — a town which suffered in war and wasted away until it perished.

5.29 The Tiber, because its source is outside Latium, if the name as well flows forth from there into our language, does not concern the Latin etymologist; just as the Volturnus, because it starts from Samnium, has nothing to do with the Latin language; but because the nearest town to it along the sea is Volturnum, it has come to us and is now a Latin name, as also the name Tiberinus. For we have both a colony named Volturnum and a god named Tiberinus.

5.30 But about the name of the Tiber there are two accounts. For Etruria believes it is hers, and so does Latium, because there have been those who said that at first, from Thebris, the near-by chieftain of the Veians, it was called the Thebris. There are also those who in their writings have handed down the story that the Tiber was called Albula as its early Latin name, and that later it was changed on account of Tiberinus king of the Latins, because he died there; for, as they relate, it was his burial-place.

5.31 V. As all natura is divided into sky and earth, so with reference to the regions of the sky the earth is divided into Asia and Europe. For Asia is that part which lies toward the noonday sun and the south wind, Europe that which lies toward the Wain and the north wind.’ Asia was named from the nymph who, according to tradition, bore Prometheus to Iapetus. Europe was named from Europa the daughter of Agenor, who, Manlius writes, was carried off from Phoenicia by the Bull; a remarkable bronze group of the two was made by Pythagoras at Tarentum.

5.32 The various localities of Europe are inhabited by many different nations. They are in general denominated by names transferred from the men, like Sabini ‘the Sabine country’, and Lucani ‘the country of the Lucanians,’ or derived from the names of the men, like Apulia and Latium, or both, like Etruria and Tusci. Where Latinus once had his kingdom, the field-lands as a whole are called Latian; but when taken piecemeal, they are named after the towns, as Praenestine from Praeneste, and Arician from Aricia.

5.33 As our State Augurs set forth, there are five kinds of fields: Roman, Gabine, peregrine, hostic, uncertain. ‘Roman’ field-land is so called from Romulus, from whom Rome got its name. ‘Gabine’ is named from the town Gabii.’ The ‘peregrine’ is field-land won in war and reduced to peace, which is apart from the Roman and the Gabine, because in these latter the auspices are observed in one uniform manner: ‘peregrine’ is named from pergere ‘to go ahead,’ that is, from progredi ‘to advance’; for into it their first advance was made out of the Roman field-land. By the same reasoning, the Gabine also is peregrine, but because it has auspices of its own special sort it is held separate from the rest. ‘Hostic’ is named from the hostes ‘enemies.’ ‘Uncertain’ field-land is that of which it is not known to which of these four classes it belongs.

5.34 VI. Ager ‘field’ is the name given to land into which they used agere ‘to drive’ something, or from which they used to drive something, for the sake of the produce; but others say that it is because the Greeks call it ἀγρό<ν>. As an ager ‘field’ is that to which driving can be done, so that whereby driving can be done is an actus ‘driveway.’ Its least limit is set at four feet in width — four perhaps from the fact that by it a four-footed animal is driven — -and one hundred and twenty feet in length. For a square actus, both in breadth and in length, the limit would be one hundred and twenty feet. There are many things which the ancients delimited with a multiple of twelve, like the actus of twelve ten-foot measures.

5.35 A iugerum is the name given to two square actus, iuncti ‘joined’ together. A centuria ‘century’ was named originally from centum ‘one hundred’ iugera, and later, when doubled, kept its name, just as the tribus ‘tribes,’ which got their name from the three parts into which the people were divided, still keep the same name though their number has been multiplied. As where they agebant ‘drove’ were actus ‘driveways,’ so where they vehebant ‘transported’ were viae ‘highways’; whither they convehebant ‘transported’ their produce were villae ‘farmhouses.’ whereby they went, they called an iter ‘road’ from itus ‘going’; where the going was narrow, was a semita ‘by-path,’ as though it were called a semiter ‘half-road.’

5.36 Ager cultus ‘cultivated field-land’ is so named from the fact that there the seeds coalescebant ‘united’ with the land, and where it is not consitus ‘sown’ it is called incultus ‘uncultivated.’ Because they first used capere ‘to take’ the products from the level field-land, it was called campus ‘plain’; after they began to till the adjacent higher places, they called them colles ‘hills’ from colere ‘to till.’ The fields which they did not till on account of woods or that kind where flocks can be grazed, but still they took them for private use, they called saltus ‘woodland-pastures’ from the fact that their use was salvus ‘saved.’ These moreover the Greeks call νέμη; ‘glades’ and we call nemora ‘groves.’

5.37 Field-land, because it seemed to be the fundamentum ‘foundation’ of animal flocks and of money, was called fundus ‘estate,’ or else because it fundit ‘pours out’ many things every year. Vineta and vineae ‘vinevards,’ from the many vites ‘grape-vines.’
Vitis ‘grapevine’ from vinum ‘wine,’ this from vis ‘strength’; from this, vindemia ‘vintage,’ because it is vinidemia ‘wine-removal’ or vitidemia ‘vine-removal.’ Seges ‘standing grain’ from satus’ sowing,’ that is, semen ‘seed.’ Semen ‘seed,’ because it is not completely that which comes from it; from this, seminaria ‘nursery-gardens,’ sementes ‘sowings,’ and likewise other words. What the segetes ‘fields of grain’ ferunt ‘bear, are fruges ‘field-produce’; from frui ‘to enjoy’ comes fructus ‘fruits’; from spes ‘hope’ comes spicae ‘ears of grain,’ where are also the culmi ‘grain-stalks,’ because they grow on the top of the plain, and a top is culmen.

5.38 Where the cut grain-sheaves arescunt ‘dry out’ for threshing, is an area ‘threshing-floor.’ On account of the likeness to these, clean places in the city are called areae; from which may be also the Gods’ ara ‘altar,’ because it is clean — unless rather from ardor ‘fire’; for the intention of using it for an ardor makes it an ara; and from this the area itself is not far away, because it is the ardor of the sun which arefacit ‘does the drying.’

5.39 Ager restibilis ‘land that withstands use’ is that which restituitur ‘is restored’ and replanted yearly; on the other hand, that which receives an intermission is called novalis ager ‘renewable field-land,’ from novare ‘to renew.’ Arvus ‘ploughable’ and arationes ‘ploughings,’ from arare ‘to plough’; from this, what the ploughshare sustulit ‘has removed’ is a sulcus ‘furrow’; whither that earth is thrown, that is, proiecta ‘thrown forth,’ is the porca ‘ridge.’

5.40 Prata ‘meadows’ are named from this, that they are parata ‘prepared’ without labour. Rura ‘country-lands’ are so called because in the fields the same operations must be done every year rursum ‘again,’ that you may again get their fruits. Sulpicius writes, however, that it is a just right for the country-lands of the populace to be divided for lavish distribution as bonus to discharged soldiers. Praedia ‘estates’ are named, as also praedes ‘bondsmen,’ from pruestare ‘to offer as security’ because these, when given as pledge to the official authorities, praestent ‘guarantee’ the good faith of the party in the case.

5.41 VII. Where Rome now is, was called the Septimontium from the same number of hills which the City afterwards embraced within its walls; of which the Capitoline got its name because here, it is said, when the foundations of the temple of Jupiter were being dug, a human caput ‘head’ was found.
This hill was previously called the Tarpeian, from the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, who was there killed by the Sabines with their shields and buried; of her name a reminder is left, that even now its cliff is called the Tarpeian Rock.

5.42 This hill was previously called the Saturnian Hill, we are informed by the writers, and from this Latium has been called the Saturnian Land, as in fact Ennius calls it. It is recorded that on this hill was an old town, named Saturnia. Even now there remain three evidences of it: that there is a temple of Saturn by the passage leading to the hill; that there is a Saturnian gate which Junius writes of as there, which they now call Pandana; that behind the temple of Saturn, in the laws for the buildings of private persons, the back walls of the houses are mentioned as Saturnian walls.

5.43 The name of the Aventine is referred to several origins. Naevius says that it is from the aves ‘birds,’ because the birds went thither from the Tiber; others, that it is from King Aventinus the Alban, because he is buried there; others that it is the Adventine Hill, from the adventus ‘coming’ of people, because there a temple of Diana was established in which all the Latins had rights in common.
I am decidedly of the opinion, that it is from advectus ‘transport by water’; for of old the hill was cut off from everything else by swampy pools and streams.
Therefore they advehebantur ‘were conveyed’ thither by rafts; and traces of this survive, in that the way by which they were then transported is now called Velabrum ‘ferry’ and the place from which they landed at the bottom of New Street is a chapel of the Velabra.

5.44 Velabrum is from vehere ‘to convey.’ Even now, those persons are said to do velatura ‘ferrying,’ who do this for pay. The merces ‘pay’ (so called from merere ‘to earn’ and aes ‘copper money’) for this ferrying of those who crossed by rafts was a farthing. From this Lucilius wrote:
Of a raft-marked farthing.

5.45 VIII. The remaining localities of the City were long ago divided off, when the twenty-seven shrines of the Argei were distributed among the four sections of the City. The Argei, they think, were named from the chieftains who came to Rome with Hercules the Argive, and settled down in Saturnia.
Of these sections, the first is recorded as the Suburan region, the second the Esquiline, the third the Colline, the fourth the Palatine.

5.46 In the section of the Suburan region, the first shrine is located on the Caelian Hill, named from Caeles Vibenna, a Tuscan leader of distinction, who is said to have come with his followers to help Romulus against King Tatius. From this hill the followers of Caeles are said, after his death, to have been brought down into the level ground, because they were in possession of a location which was too strongly fortified and their loyalty was somewhat under suspicion.
From them was named the Vicus Tuscus ‘Tuscan Row,’ and therefore, they say, the statue of Vertumnus stands there, because he is the chief god of Etruria; but those of the Caelians who were free from suspicion were removed to that place which is called Caeliolum ‘the little Caelian.’

5.47 Joined to the Caelian is Carinae ‘the Keels’; and between them is the place which is called Caeriolensis,’ obviously because the fourth shrine of the first region is thus written in the records:
Caeriolensis: fourth shrine, near the temple of Minerva, in the street by which you go up the Caelian Hill; it is in a booth.
Caeriolensis is so called from the joining of the Carinae with the Caelian. Carinae is perhaps from caerimonia ‘ceremony,’ because from here starts the beginmng of the Sacred Way, which extends from the Chapel of Strenia to the citadel, by which the offerings are brought every year to the citadel, and by which the augurs regularly set out from the citadel for the observation of the birds. Of this Sacred Way, this is the only part commonly known, namely the part which is at the beginning of the Ascent as you go from the Forum.

5.48 To the same region is assigned the Subura, which is beneath the earth-wall of the Carinae; in it is the sixth chapel of the Argei. Junius writes that Subura is so named because it was at the foot of the old city (sub urbe); proof of which may be in the fact that it is under that place which is called the earth-wall. But I rather think that from the Succusan district it was called Succusa; for even now when abbreviated it is written SVC, with C and not B as third letter. The Succusan district is so named because it succurrit ‘runs up to’ the Carinae.

5.49 To the second region belongs the Esquiline.
Some say that this was named from the king’s excubiae ‘watch-posts,’ others that it was from the fact that it was planted with aesculi ‘oaks’ by King Tullius. With this second origin the near-by places agree better, because in that locality there is the so-called Beech Grove, and the chapel of the Oak-Grove Lares, and the Grove of Mefitis and of Juno Lucina — whose territories are narrow. And it is not astonishing; for now this long while, far and wide,
Greed has been the one and only mistress.

5.50 The Esquiline includes two hills, inasmuch as the Oppian part and the Cespian part of the hill are called by their own old names even now, in the sacrifices. In the Sacrifices of the Argei there is the following record:
Oppian Hill: first shrine, on the Esquiline, beyond the Beech Grove; it is on the left side of the street along the wall.
Oppian Hill: third shrine, this side of the Esquiline Grove; it is in a booth on the right-hand side of the street.
Oppian Hill: fourth shrine, this side of the Esquiline Grove; it is on the right-hand side of the street among the potteries.
Cespian Hill: fifth shrine, this side of the Poetelian Grove; it is on the Esquiline.
Cespian Hill: sixth shrine, at the temple of Juno Lucina, where the sacristan customarily dwells.

5.51 To the third region belong five hills, named from sanctuaries of gods; among these hills are two that are well-known. The Viminal Hill got its name from Jupiter Viminius ‘of the Osiers,’ because there was his altar; but there are some who assign its name to the fact that there were vimineta ‘willow-copses’ there. The Quirinal Hill was so named because there was the sanctuary of Quirinus; others say that it is derived from the Quirites, who came with Tatius from Cures to the vicinity of Rome, because there they established their camp.

5.52 This name has caused the names of the adjacent localities to be forgotten. For that there were other hills with their own names, is clear from the Sacrifices of the Argei, in which there is a record to this effect:
Quirinal Hill: third shrine, this side of the temple of Quirinus.
Salutary Hill: fourth shrine, opposite the temple of Apollo, this side of the temple of Salus.
Mucial Hill: fifth shrine, at the temple of the God of Faith, in the chapel where the sacristan customarily dwells.
Latiary Hill: sixth shrine, at the top of Insteian Row, at the augurs’ place of observation; it is the only building.
The altars of these gods, from which they have their surnames, are in the various parts of this region.

5.53 To the fourth region belongs the Palatine, so called because the Pallantes came there with Evander, and they were called also Palatines; others think that it was because Palatines, aboriginal inhabitants of a Reatine district called Palatium, settled there; but others thought that it was from Palanto, wife of Latinus. This same place certain authorities think was named from the pecus ‘flocks’; therefore Naevius calls it the Balatium ‘Bleat-ine.’

5.54 To this they joined the Cermalus and the Veliae, because in the account of this region it is thus recorded:
Germalian: fifth shrine, at the temple of Romulus, and Velian: sixth shrine, on the Velia, at the temple of the deified Penates.
Germalus, they say, is from the germani ‘brothers’
Romulus and Remus, because it is beside the Fig-tree of the Suckling, and they were found there, where the Tiber’s winter flood had brought them when they had been put out in a basket. For the source of the name Veliae I have found several reasons, among them, that there the shepherds of the Palatine, before the invention of shearing, used to vellere ‘pluck’ the wool from the sheep, from which the vellera ‘fleeces’ were named.

5.55 IX. The Roman field-land was at first divided into tris ‘three’ parts, from which they called the Titienses, the Ramnes, and the Luceres each a tribus ‘tribe.’ These tribes were named, as Ennius says, the Titienses from Tatius, the Ramnenses from Romulus, the Luceres, according to Junius, from Lucumo; but all these words are Etruscan, as Volnius, who wrote tragedies in Etruscan, stated.

5.56 From this, four parts of the City also were used as names of tribes, the Suburan, the Palatine, the Esquiline, the Colline, from the places; a fifth, because it was sub Roma ‘beneath the walls of Rome,’ was called Romilian; so also the remaining thirty from those causes which I wrote in the Book of the Tribes.

5.57 X. I have told what pertains to places and those things which are connected with them; now of these things which are wont to be in places, I shall explain those which deal with immortals and with mortals, in such a way that first I shall tell what pertains to the gods. The first gods were Caelum ‘Sky’ and Terra ‘Earth.’ These gods are the same as those who in Egypt are called Serapis and Isis, though Harpocrates with his finger make a sign to me to be silent. The same first gods were in Latium called Saturn and Ops.

5.58 For Earth and Sky, as the mysteries of the Samothracians teach, are Great Gods, and these whom I have mentioned under many names, are not those Great Gods whom Samothrace represents by two male statues of bronze which she has set up before the city-gates, nor are they, as the populace thinks, the Samothracian gods, who are really Castor and Pollux; but these are a male and a female, these are those whom the Books of the Augurs mention in writing as potent deities, for what the Samothracians call powerful gods (θεοί δυνατοί).

5.59 These two, Sky and Earth, are a pair like life and body. Earth is a damp cold thing, whether
Eggs the flock that is feather-adorned is wont to give birth to,
Not to a life,
as Ennius says, and
Thereafter by providence comes to the fledglings
Life itself, or, as Zeno of Citium says,
The seed of animals is that fire which is life and mind.
This warmth is from the Sky, because it has countless undying fires. Therefore Epicharmus, when he is speaking of the human mind, says
That is fire taken from the Sun, and likewise of the sun.
And it is all composed of mind, just as moistures are composed of cold earth, as I have shown above.

5.60 United with these, Sky and Earth produced everything from themselves, because by means of them nature
Mixes heat with cold, and dryness with the wet.
Pacuvius is right then in saying
And heaven adds the life, and Ennius in saying that
The body she’s given
Earth does herself take back, and of loss not a whit does she suffer.
Inasmuch as the separation of life and body is the exitus ‘way out’ for all creatures born, from that comes exitium ‘destruction,’ just as when they ineunt ‘go into’ unity, it is their initia ‘beginnings.’

5.61 From this fact, every body, when there is excessive heat or excessive moisture, perishes, or if it survives, is barren. Summer and winter are witnesses to this: in the one the air is blazing hot and the wheat-ears dry up; in the other, nature has no wish to struggle with rain and cold for purposes of birth, and rather waits for spring. Therefore the conditions of procreation are two: fire and water. Thus these are used at the threshold in weddings, because there is union here, and fire is male, which the semen is in the other case, and the water is the female, because the embryo develops from her moisture, and the force that brings their vinctio ‘binding’ is Venus ‘Love.’

5.62 Hence the comic poet says,
Venus is his victress, do you see it? not because Venus wishes vincere ‘to conquer,’ but vincire ‘to bind.’ Victory herself is named from the fact that the overpowered vinciuntur ‘are bound.’
Poetry bears testimony to both, because both Victory and Venus are called heaven-born; for Tellus ‘Earth,’ because she was the first one bound to the Sky, is from that called Victory. Therefore she is connected with the corona ‘garland’ and the palma ‘palm,’ because the garland is a binder of the head and is itself, from vinchtra ‘binding,’ said vieri ‘to be plaited,’ that is, vinciri ‘to be bound’; whence there is the line in Ennius’s Sola:
The lustful pair were going, to plait the Love-god’s garland.
Palma ‘palm’ is so named because, being naturally bound on both sides, it has paria ‘equal’ leaves.

5.63 The poets, in that they say that the fiery seed fell from the Sky into the sea and Venus was born ‘from the foam-masses,’ through the conjunction of fire and moisture, are indicating that the vis ‘force’ which they have is that of Venus. Those born of this vis have what is called vita ‘life,’ and that was meant by Lucilius :
Life is force, you see; to do everything force doth compel us.

5.64 Wherefore because the Sky is the beginning,
Saturn was named from satus ‘sowing’; and because fire is a beginning, waxlights are presented to patrons at the Saturnalia. Ops is the Earth, because in it is every opus ‘work’ and there is opus ‘need’ of it for living, and therefore Ops is called mother, because the Earth is the mother. For she
All men hath produced in all the lands, and takes them back again, she who
Gives the rations, as Ennius says, who Is Ceres, since she brings (gerit) the fruits.
For with the ancients, what is now G, was written C.

5.65 These same gods Sky and Earth are Jupiter and Juno, because, as Ennius says,
That one is the Jupiter of whom I speak, whom Grecians call Air; who is the windy blast and cloud, and afterwards the rain;
After rain, the cold; he then becomes again the wind and air.
This is why those things of which I speak to you are Jupiter:
Help he gives to men, to fields and cities, and to beasties all.
Because all come from him and are under him, he addresses him with the words :
O father and king of the gods and the mortals.
Pater ‘father’ because he patefacit ‘makes evident’ the seed; for then it patet ‘is evident’ that conception has taken place, when that which is born comes out from it.

5.66 This same thing the more ancient name of Jupiter shows even better: for of old he was called Diovis and Diespiter, that is, dies pater ‘Father Day’; from which they who come from him are called dei ‘deities,’ and dius ‘god’ and divum ‘sky,’ whence sub divo ‘under the sky,’ and Dius Fidius ‘god of faith.’ Thus from this reason the roof of his temple is pierced with holes, that in this way the divum, which is the caelum ‘sky,’ may be seen. Some say that it is improper to take an oath by his name, when you are under a roof. Aelius said that Dius Fidius was a son of Diovis, just as the Greeks call Castor the son of Zeus, and he thought that he was Sancus in the Sabine tongue, and Hercules in Greek. He is likewise called Dispater in his lowest capacity, when he is joined to the earth, where all things vanish away even as they originate; and because he is the end of these ortus ‘creations,’ he is called Orcus.

5.67 Because Juno is Jupiter’s wife, and he is Sky, she Terra ‘Earth,’ the same as Tellus ‘Earth,’ she also, because she iuvat ‘helps’ una ‘along’ with Jupiter, is called Juno, and Regina ‘Queen,’ because all earthly things are hers.

5.68 Sol ‘Sun’ is so named either because the Sabines called him thus, or because he solus ‘alone’ shines in such a way that from this god there is the daylight. Luna ‘Moon’ is so named certainly because she alone ‘lucet’ shines at night. Therefore she is called Noctiluca ‘Night-Shiner’ on the Palatine; for there her temple noctu lucet ‘shines by night.’ Certain persons call her Diana, just as they call the Sun Apollo (the one name, that of Apollo, is Greek, the other Latin); and from the fact that the Moon goes both high and widely, she is called Diviana.
From the fact that the Moon is wont to be under the lands as well as over them, Ennius’s Epicharmus calls her Proserpina. Proserpina received her name because she, like a serpens ‘creeper,’ moves widely now to the right, now to the left. Serpere ‘to creep’ and proserpere ‘to creep forward’ meant the same thing, as Plautus means in what he writes:
Like a forward-creeping beast.

5.69 She appears therefore to be called by the Latins also Juno Lucina, either because she is also the Earth, as the natural scientists say, and lucet ‘shines’; or because from that light of hers in which a conception takes place until that one in which there is a birth into the light, the Moon continues to help, until she has brought it forth into the light when the months are past, the name Juno Lucina was made from iuvare ‘to help’ and lux ‘light.’ From this fact women in child-birth invoke her; for the Moon is the guide of those that are born, since the months belong to her. It is clear that the women of olden times observed this, because women have given this goddess credit notably for their eyebrows. For Juno Lucina ought especially to be established in places where the gods give light to our eyes.

5.70 Ignis ‘fire’ is named from nasci ‘to be born,’ because from it there is birth, and everything which is born the fire enkindles; therefore it is hot, just as he who dies loses the fire and becomes cold.
From the fire’s vis ac violentia ‘force and violence,’ now in greater measure, Vulcan was named. From the fact that fire on account of its brightness fulget ‘flashes,’ come fulgur ‘lightning-flash’ and fulmen ‘thunderbolt,’ and what has heen fulmine ictum ‘hit by a thunderbolt’ is called fulguritum.

5.71 Among deities of an opposite kind, Lympha ‘water-nymph’ is derived from the water’s lapsus lubricus ‘slippery gliding.’ Juturna was a nymph whose function was iuvare ‘to give help’; therefore many sick persons, on account of this name, are wont to seek water from her spring. From springs and rivers and the other waters gods are named, as Tiberinus from the river Tiber, and Velinia from the lake of the Velinus, and the Commotiles ‘Restless’ Nymphs at the Cutilian Lake, from the commotus ‘motion,’ because there an island commovetur ‘moves about’ in the water.

5.72 Neptune, because the sea veils the lands as the clouds veil the sky, gets his name from nuptus ‘veiling,’ that is, opertio ‘covering,’ as the ancients said; from which nuptiae ‘wedding,’ nuptus ‘wedlock’ are derived. Salacia, wife of Neptune, got her name from solum ‘the surging sea.’ Venilia was named from venire ‘to come’ and that ventus ‘wind’ which Plautus mentions:
As that one said who with a favouring wind was borne
Over a placid sea: I’m glad I went.

5.73 Bellona ‘Goddess of War’ is said now, from bellum ‘war,’ which formerly was Duellona, from duellum. Mars is named from the fact that he commands the mares ‘males’ in war, or that he is called Mamers among the Sabines, with whom he is a favourite. Quirinus is from Quirites. Virtus ‘valour,’ as viritus, is from virilitas ‘manhood.’ Honos ‘honour, office’ is said from onus ‘burden’; therefore honestum ‘honourable’ is said of that which is oneratum ‘loaded with burdens,’ and it has been said:
Full onerous is the honour which maintains the state.
The name of Castor is Greek, that of Pollux likewise from the Greeks; the form of the name which is found in old Latin literature is Polluces, like Greek Πολυδεύκης, not Pollux as it is now. Concordia ‘Concord’ is from the cor congruens ‘harmonious heart.’ ‘

5.74 Feronia, Minerva, the Novensides are from the Sabines. With slight changes, we say the following, also from the same people: Pales, Vesta, Salus, Fortune, Fons, Fides ‘Faith.’ There is scent of the speech of the Sabines about the altars also, which by the vow of King Tatius were dedicated at Rome: for, as the Annals tell, he vowed altars to Ops, Flora, Vediovis and Saturn, Sun, Moon, Vulcan and Summanus, and likewise to Larunda, Terminus, Quirinus, Vertumnus, the Lares, Diana and Lucina: some of these names have roots in both languages, like trees which have sprung up on the boundary-line and creep about in both fields: for Saturn might be used as the god’s name from one source here, and from another among the Sabines, and so also Diana: these names I have discussed above.

5.75 XI This is what has to do with the immortals; next let us look at that which has to do with mortal creatures. Amongst these are the animals, and because they abide in three places — in the air, in the water, and on the land — I shall start from the highest place and come down to the lowest. First the names of them all, collectively: alites winged birds’ from their alae ‘wings,’ volucres ‘fliers’ from volatus ‘flight.’
Next by kinds: of these, very many are named from their cries, as are these: upupa ‘hoopoe,’ cuculus ‘cuckoo,’ corvus ‘raven,’ hirundo ‘swallow,’ ulula ‘screech-owl,’ bubo ‘horned owl’; likewise these: pavo ‘peacock,’ anser ‘goose,’ gallina ‘hen,’ columba ‘dove.’

5.76 Some got their names from other reasons, such as the noctua ‘night-owl,’ because it stays awake and hoots noctu ‘by night,’ and the lusciniola ‘nightingale,’ because it is thought to canere ‘sing’ luctuose ‘sorrowfully’ and to have been transformed from the Athenian Procne in her luctus ‘sorrow,’ into a bird. Likewise the galeritus ‘crested lark’ and the motacilla ‘wagtail,’ the one because it has a feather standing up on its head, the other because it is always moving its tail. The merula ‘blackbird’ is so named because it flies mera ‘unmixed,’ that is, alone’; on the other hand, the graguli ‘jackdaws’ got their names because they fly gregatim ‘in flocks,’ as certain Greeks call greges ‘flocks’ γέργερα. Ficedulae ‘figpeckers’ and miliariae ‘ortolans’ are named from their food, because the ones become fat on the ficus ‘fig,’ the others on milium ‘millet.’

5.77 XII The names of water animals are some native, some foreign. From abroad come muraena ‘moray,’ because it is μυραίνα in Greek, cybium ‘young tunny and thunnus’ tunny,’ all whose parts likewise go by Greek names, as melander ‘black-oak-piece’ and uraeon ‘tail-piece.’ very many names of fishes are transferred from land objects which are like them in some respect, as anguilla ‘eel,’ lingulaca ‘sole,’ sudis ‘pike.’ Others come from their colours, like these: asellus ‘cod,’ umbra ‘grayling,’ turdus ‘seacarp.’ Others come from some physical power, like these: lupus ‘wolf-fish,’ canicula ‘dogfish,’ torpedo ‘electric ray.’ Likewise among the shellfish there are some from Greek, as peloris ‘mussel,’ ostrea ‘oyster,’ echinus ‘sea-urchin’; and also native words that point out a likeness, as surenae,’ pectunculi ‘scallops,’ ungues ‘razor-clams.’

5.78 XIII. There are also animals in the water, which at times come out on the land: some with Greek names, like the octopus, the hippopotamus, the crocodile; others with Latin names, like rana ‘frog,’ ‘chatter-box, talkative woman.’ On land, a ‘stake.’
On land, respectively ‘little ass,’ ‘shadow,’ ‘thrush.’
On land, respectively ‘wolf,’ ‘little dog,’ ‘numbness.’ anas ‘duck,’ mergus ‘diver.’ Whence the Greeks give the name amphibia ἀμφίβια to those which can live both in the water and on the land. Of these, the rana is named from its voice, the anas from nare ‘to swim,’ the mergus because it catches its food by mergendo ‘diving’ into the water.

5.79 Likewise there are other names in this class, that are from the Greeks, as querquedula ‘teal,’ because it is κερκήδης, and alcedo ‘kingfisher,’ because this is ἁλκυών; and Latin names, such as testudo ‘tortoise,’ because this animal is covered with a testa ‘shell,’ and lolligo ‘cuttle-fish,’ because it volat ‘flies’ up from under, originally volligo, but now with one letter changed. Just as in Egypt there is a quadruped living in the river, so there are river quadrupeds in Latium, named lutra ‘otter’ and fiber ‘beaver.’ The lutra is so named because it is said to cut off the roots of trees on the bank and set the trees loose: from luere ‘to loose,’ lutra. The beaver was called fiber because it is usually seen very far off on the bank of the river to right or to left, and the ancients called a thing that was very far off a februm; from which in blankets the last part is called fimbriae ‘fringe’ and the last part in the liver is the fibra ‘fibre.’

5.80 XIV. Among the living beings on the land, I shall speak first of terms which apply to human beings, then of domestic animals, third of wild beasts. I shall start from the offices of the state. The Consul was so named as the one who should consulere ‘ask the advice of’ people and senate, unless rather from this fact whence Accius takes it when he says in the Brutus:
Let him who counsels right, become the Consul.
The Praetor was so named as the one who should praeire ‘go before’ the law and the army; whence Lucilius said this:
Then to go out in front and before is the duty of praetors.

5.81 The Censor was so named as the one at whose censio ‘rating,’ that is, arbitrium ‘judgement,’ the people should be rated. The Aedile, as the one who was to look after aedes ‘buildings’ sacred and private.
The Quaestors, from quaerere’ to seek,’ who conquirerent ‘should seek into’ the public moneys and illegal doings, which the triumviri capitales ‘the prison board’ now investigate; from these, afterwards, those who pronounce judgement on the matters of investigation were named quaesitores ‘inquisitors.’ The Tribuni Militum ‘tribunes of the soldiers,’ because of old there were sent to the army three each on behalf of the three tribes of Ramnes, Luceres, and Tities. The Tribuni Plebei ‘tribunes of the plebs,’ because from among the tribunes of the soldiers tribunes of the plebs were first created, in the Secession to Crustumerium, for the purpose of defending the plebs ‘populace.’

5.82 The Dictator, because he was named by the consul as the one to whose dictum ‘order’ all should be obedient. The Magister Equitum ‘master of the cavalry,’ because he has supreme power over the cavalry and the replacement troops, just as the dictator is the highest authority over the people, from which he also is called magister, but of the people and not of the cavalry. The remaining officials, because they are inferior to these magistri ‘masters,’ are called magistratus ‘magistrates,’ derived just as albatus ‘whitened, white-clad ‘is derived from albus ‘white.’

5.83 XV. The sacerdotes ‘priests’ collectively were named from the sacra ‘sacred rites.’ The pontifices ‘high-priests,’ Quintus Scaevola the Pontifex Maximus said, were named from posse ‘to be able’ and facere ‘to do,’ as though potentifices. For my part I think that the name comes from pons ‘bridge’; for by them the Bridge-on-Piles was made in the first place, and it was likewise repeatedly repaired by them, since in that connexion rites are performed on both sides of the Tiber with no small ceremony. The curiones were named from the curiae; they are created for conducting sacred rites in the curiae.

5.84 The flamines ‘flamens,’ because in Latium they always kept their heads covered and had their hair girt with a woollen ‘band,’ were originally called Filamines. Individually they have distinguishing epithets from that god whose rites they perform; but some are obvious, others obscure: obvious, like Martialis and Volcanalis; obscure are Dialis and Furinalis, since Dialis is from Jove, for he is called also Diovis, and Furinalis from Furrina, who even has a Furinal Festival in the calendar. So also the Flamen Falacer from the divine father Falacer.

5.85 The Salii were named from salitare ‘to dance,’ because they had the custom and the duty of dancing yearly in the assembly-places, in their ceremonies. The Luperci were so named because they make offerings in the Lupercal at the festival of the Lupercalia. Fratres Arvales ‘Arval Brothers’ was the name given to those who perform public rites to the end that the ploughlands may bear fruits: from ferre ‘to bear’ and ana ‘ploughlands’ they are called Fratres Arvales. But some have said that they were named from fratria ‘brotherhood’: fratria is the Greek name of a part of the people, as at Naples even now. The Sodales Titii ‘Titian Comrades’ are so named from the titiantes ‘twittering’ birds which they are accustomed to watch in some of their augural observations.

5.86 The Fetiales ‘herald-priests,’ because they were in charge of the state’s word of honour in matters between peoples; for by them it was brought about that a war that was declared should be a just war, and by them the war was stopped, that by a foedus ‘treaty’ the fides ‘honesty’ of the peace might be established. Some of them were sent before war should be declared, to demand restitution of the stolen property, and by them even now is made the foedus ‘treaty,’ which Ennius writes was pronounced fidus.

5.87 XVI. In military affairs, the praetor was so called as the one who should praeire ‘go at the head’ of the army. The imperator ‘commander,’ from the imperium ‘dominion’ of the people, as the one who crushed those enemies who had attacked it. The legati ‘attaches,’ those who were lecti ‘chosen’ officially, whose aid or counsel the magistrates should use when away from Rome, or who should be messengers of the senate or of the people. The exercitus ‘army,’ because by exercitando ‘training’ it is improved. The legio ‘legion,’ because the soldiers leguntur ‘are gathered’ in the levy.

5.88 The cohors ‘cohort,’ because, just as on the farm the cohors ‘yard’ coniungitur ‘is joined together’ of several buildings and becomes a certain kind of unity, so in the army it copulatur ‘is coupled together’ of several maniples: the cohors which is on the farm, is so called because around that place the flock cooritur ‘assembles,’ although Hypsicrates says that the cohors on the farm, as said by the poets, is the word which in Greek is χόρτος ‘farmyard.’ The manipulus ‘maniple’ is the smallest manus ‘troop’ which has a standard of its own to follow. The centuria ‘century’ consists of those who are under one centurio ‘centurion,’ whose proper number is centenarius ‘one hundred each.’

5.89 Milites ‘soldiers,’ because at first the legion was made of three milia ‘thousands,’ and the individual tribes of Titienses, Ramnes, and Luceres sent their milia ‘thousands’ of milites ‘soldiers.’ The hastati ‘spearmen’ were so called as those who in the first line fought with hastae ‘spears,’ the pilani ‘javelin-men’ as being those who fought with pila ‘javelins,’ the principes ‘first-men’ as those who from the principium ‘beginning’ fought with swords; these words were less perspicuous later, when tactics had been changed. The pilani are called also triarii ‘third-line-men,’ because in the battle arrangement they were set in the rear, in the third line, as reserves; because these men habitually subsidebant ‘sat’ while waiting, from this fact the subsidium ‘reserve force’ got its name, whence Plautus says:
Come now, all of you sit by as troopers in reserve are wont.

5.90 Auxilium ‘auxiliaries’ was so called from auctus ‘increase,’ when those foreigners who were intended to give help had added themselves to the fighters. Praesidium ‘garrison’ was said of those who praesidebant ‘sat in front’ outside the main camp somewhere, that the district might be safer. Obsidium ‘siege’ was said from obsidere ‘to sit in the way,’ that the enemy might not be able to sally forth.
Insidiae ‘ambush’ likewise from insidere ‘to sit in a place,’ since they did this that they might more easily diminish the enemy’s forces. Duplicarii ‘doublers’ were those to whom by order duplicia ‘double’ rations were given on account of their notable valour.

5.91 Turma ‘squadron’ is from terima (the E has changed to U), because they were composed of ter ‘three times’ ten horsemen, from the three tribes of Titienses, Ramnes, and Luceres. Therefore the leaders of the individual decuriae ‘groups of ten were called decurions, who from this fact are even now three in each squadron. Those whom at first the decurions themselves adoptabant ‘chose’ as their assistants, were at the start called optiones ‘choices’; but now the tribunes, to increase their influence, do the appointing of them. Tubicines ‘trumpeters,’ from tuba ‘trumpet’ and canere ‘to sing or play’; in like fashion liticines ‘cornetists.’ The classicus ‘class musician’ is named from the classis ‘class of citizens’; he likewise plays on the horn or the cornet, for example when they call the classes to gather for an assembly.

5.92 XII. Among the words which have to do with personal fortune, some are not very clear, such as pauper ‘poor,’ dives ‘rich,’ miser ‘wretched,’ beatus ‘blest,’ and others as well. Pauper is from paulus lar ‘scantily equipped home.’ Mendicus ‘beggar’ is from minus ‘less,’ said of one who, when there is a need, has minus ‘less’ than nothing. Dives ‘rich’ is from divus ‘godlike person,’ who, as being a deus ‘god,’ seems to lack nothing. Opulentus ‘wealthy’ is from ops ‘property,’ said of one who has it in abundance; from the same, inops ‘destitute’ is said of him who lacks ops, and from the same source copis ‘well supplied’ and copiosus ‘abundantly furnished.’
Pecuniosus ‘moneyed’ is from a large amount of pecunia ‘money’; pecunia is from pecu ‘flock’: for it was among keepers of flocks that these words originated.

5.93 XVIII. For artisans the chief cause of the names is the art itself, that is, that from the ars medicina ‘medical art’ the medicus ‘physician’ should be named, and from the ars sutrina ‘shoemaker’s art ‘the sutor’ shoemaker,’ and not directly from mederi ‘to cure’ and suere ‘to sew,’ though these are the absolutely final sources for such names. For these are the roots of these things, as will be shown in the next book. Therefore, because an artisan is called from his art and not many names in this class are obscure, I shall leave them and go on.

5.94 There is a like origin for those names which are given from some special skill, such as praestigiator ‘juggler,’ monitor ‘prompter,’ nomenclator ‘namer’; so also those which are derived from a special interest, such as cursor ‘runner,’ natator ‘swimmer,’ pugil ‘boxer.’ The words which are in this class too, are generally obvious, like legulus ‘picker,’ one of olives and the other of grapes. If these are less obvious in the cases of vindemiator, vestigatar, and venator, still the same principle holds, that vindemiator ‘vintager’ is said either because he gathers the vinum ‘wine’ or because they demunt ‘take’ this from the vitis ‘grapevine’; vestigator ‘tracker,’ from the vestigia ‘tracks’ of the beasts which he trails; venator ‘hunter’ from ventus ‘wind,’ because he follows the stag towards the wind and into the wind.

5.95 XIX. So much about men: what comes next here is about cattle, as follows. Pecus ‘cattle,’ from the fact that they perpascebant ‘grazed,’ whence as a whole they were called pecora ‘flocks and herds.’
Because the herdsmen’s pecunia ‘wealth’ then lay in their pecus ‘flocks’ and the base for standing is a pes ‘foot’ (from which in buildings the ground is called a great pe ‘foot’ and a man who has founded a business is said to have established his pes ‘footing’), from pes ‘foot’ they gave the name pecus, pecudis ‘one head of cattle,’ just as from the same they said pedica ‘fetter’ and pedisequus ‘footman’ and peculiariae ‘privately owned’ sheep or anything else: for this was the first private property. Hence they called it a peculaius ‘peculation’ from the state in the beginning, when a fine was imposed in pecus ‘cattle’ and there was a collection into the state treasury, of what had been diverted.

5.96 Regarding cattle from which there is larger profit, there is the same use of names here as among the Greeks: sus ‘swine,’ the same as ὗς bos ‘cow,’ the same as βοῦς; taurus ‘bull,’ the same as ταῦρος; likewise ovis ‘sheep,’ the same as ὄις: for thus the ancients used to say, not πρόβατον as they do now.
This identity of the names in Latium and in Greece may be the result of invention after the natural utterances of the animals. Armenia ‘plough-oxen,’ because they raised oxen especially that they might select some of them for arandum ‘ploughing’; thence they were called arimenta, from which the third letter I was afterwards squeezed out. Vitulus ‘calf,’ because in Greek it was anciently ἰταλός; or from vegitulus, a name given because most calves are vegeti ‘frisky.’ A iuvencus ‘bullock’ was one which could now iuvare ‘help’ in tilling the fields.

5.97 Capra ‘she-goat’ was originally carpa ‘cropper,’ from which is written
All-cropping she-goats. Fircus ‘buck,’ which the Sabines call ircus; and what there is fedus, in Latium is hedus ‘kid’ in the country, and in the City it is haedus, with an added A, as is the case with many words. Porcus ‘pig,’ because the Sabines say aprunus porcus ‘boar pig’; therefore porcus ‘pig,’ unless it comes from the Greeks, because at Athens in the Books of the Sacrifices porcae ‘female pig’ is written, and porcos ‘male pig.’

5.98 Aries ‘ram,’ as some used to say, from arae altars’; our ancients said ariuga ‘altar-mate,’ and from this formed a masculine ariugus. These are those whose vital organs are in the sacrifices boiled in a pot and not roasted on a spit, of which Accius writes and which we see in the Pontifical Books. Among sacrificial victims, that victim which by the specifications is to have horns, they call an ariuga; but if the testicles are removed from a male sheep and its nature is thereby forcibly versa ‘altered,’ the name verbex ‘wether’ is derived as its designation.

5.99 An agnus ‘lamb’ is so named because it is agnatus ‘born as an addition’ to the flock of sheep. A catulus ‘puppy’ is named from its quick and keen scent, like the names Cato and Catulus; and from this, canis ‘dog’: unless, just as the trumpet and the horn are said to canere ‘sing’ when they give some signal, so the canis is named because it likewise, both when guarding the house day or night, and when engaged in hunting, gives the signal with its voice.

5.100 XX. The names of wild beasts are likewise some of them foreign, such as panthera ‘panther,’ leo ‘lion’: both Greek, whence also certain nets called panther and lioness, and there are courtesans named Pantheris and Leaena. The tigris ‘tiger,’ which is as it were a striped lion, which as yet they have not been able to take alive, has its name from the Armenian language, for in Armenia both an arrow and a very swift river are named Tigris. The name of the ursus ‘bear’ is of Lucanian origin, or our ancestors called it from its voice, and so did the Lucanians. The camelus ‘camel’ has come to Latium bringing its own Syrian name with it, and so has the camelopardalis ‘giraffe’ which was recently brought from Alexandria, so called because it was in form like a camel and in spots like a panther.

5.101 Apri ‘boars,’ from the fact that they frequent asperd ‘rough’ places, unless from the Greeks, because in Greek these are caproe/caprea ‘roe-deer,’ from a certain likeness to the capra ‘she-goat.’ Cervi ‘stags,’ because they gerunt ‘carry’ big horns, and so they are gervi; the word has changed G to C, as has happened in many words. Lepus ‘hare,’ because the Sicilians, like certain Aeolian Greeks, say λέποριν. Inasmuch as the Sicilians originated from Rome, as our old Annals say, perhaps they carried the word from here to Sicily, but also left it here behind them. Volpes ‘fox,’ as Aelius used to say, because it volat ‘flies’ with its pedes ‘feet.’

5.102 XXI. The next living beings to be discussed are those which are said to live, and yet do not breathe, such as bushes. Virgultum ‘bush’ is said from viridis ‘green,’ and viridis from a certain vis ‘power’ of moisture: if this moisture has thoroughly dried out, the bush dies. Fitis ‘grape-vine,’ because it is the source of vinum ‘wine.’ Malum ‘apple,’ because the Aeolian Greeks call it μᾶλον. The pinus ‘pine,’ . . .
The iuglans ‘walnut,’ because while this nut is like an acorn before it is cleansed of its hull, the inner nut, being best and biggest, is called iu-glans from Jove and glans ‘acorn.’ The same word nux ‘nut’ is so called because its juice makes a person’s skin black, just as nox ‘night’ makes the air black.

5.103 Of those which are grown in gardens, some are called by foreign names, as, by Greek names, ocimum ‘basil,’ menta ‘mint,’ ruta ‘rue,’ which they now call πήγανον; likewise caulis ‘cabbage,’ lapathium ‘sorrel,’ radix ‘radish’: for thus the ancient Greeks called what they now call ῥάφανον; likewise these from Greek names: serpyllum ‘thyme,’ rosa ‘rose,’ each with one letter changed; likewise Latin names from these Greek names: κολίανδρον ‘coriander,’ κύμινον ‘cummin’; likewise lilium ‘lily’ from λειρίῳ and malva ‘mallow’ from μαλάχῃ and sisymbrium ‘thyme’ from σισυμβρίῳ.

5.104 Native words: lactuca ‘lettuce’ from lacte ‘milk,’ because this herb contains milk; brassica ‘cabbage’ as though praesica, because from its stalk praesicatur ‘leaves are cut off’ one by one; asparagi ‘asparagus shoots,’ because they are gathered from aspera ‘rough’ bushes and the stems themselves are rough, not smooth: unless it is a Greek name, for in Greece also they say ἀσπάραγος. Cucumeres ‘cucumbers’ are named from their curvor ‘curvature,’ as though curvimeres. Fructus ‘fruits’ are named from ferre ‘to bear,’ namely those things which the farm and those things which are on the farm bear, that we may enjoy them. From this are derived fruges ‘field products’ and frumentum ‘corn’ but these come out of the earth: even frumentum, because to the pot-boiled vitals it is customary to add some of the mola ‘grits,’ that is, salt and spelt molitum ‘ground up’ together. Uvae ‘grapes,’ from uvor ‘moisture.’

5.105 XXII. I shall now speak of things which are made by human hands: food, clothing, tools, and anything else which seems to be associated with them. Of foods the most ancient is puls ‘porridge’; this got its name either because the Greeks called it thus, or from the fact which Apollodorus mentions, that it makes a sound like puls when it is thrown into boiling water. Panis ‘bread,’ because at first they made it in the shape of a panus ‘cloth’ such as women make in weaving; after they began to make it in other shapes, they started saying panificium ‘pastry,’ from panis ‘bread’ and facere ‘to make.’ From this, panarium ‘bread-closet,’ where they kept it, like granarium ‘granary,’ where they stored the granum ‘grain’ of the corn, from which granarium was derived — unless it came from the fact that the Greeks called the grain κρόκην; and in this case it was from the Greeks also that the place in which are kept the grains that are stored, was called a granarium.

5.106 Hordeum ‘barley,’ from horridus ‘bristling.’
Triticum’ wheat,’ because it was tritum ‘threshed out’ from the ears. Far ‘spelt,’ from facere ‘to make,’ because it is made into flour in the mill. Milium ‘millet,’ from the Greek: for it is μελίνη. Libum ‘cake,’ because, after it was baked, libabatur ‘there was an offering of some of it to the gods before it was eaten. Testuacium ‘pot-cake,’ because it was baked in a heated earthen testu ‘pot,’ as even now the matrons do this at the Matralia. Circuli ‘rings,’ because they poured into the pan a regular circuitus ‘circuit’ of a batter made of flour, cheese, and water.

5.107 Certain persons who used to make these rather carelessly called them lixulae ‘softies’ and similixulae ‘wheat-softies,’ by the Sabine name, such was their general use among the Sabines. Those that consist of a leavened globus ‘ball’ of dough and are cooked in oil, are from globus called globi ‘globes.’
Crustulum ‘cookie,’ from the crusta ‘crust’ of the porridge, whose crusta is so named because it is, as it were, a corium ‘hide’ and it uritur ‘is burnt.’ The other confections are in general of obvious origin, being taken from Greek words, like thrion ‘omelette’ and placenta ‘sand-tart.’

5.108 That which they ate with their puls ‘porridge,’ was from that fact called pulmentum ‘side-dish,’ as Plautus says; from this was said pulmentarium ‘relish’: this the shepherds lacked in the early times. Caseus ‘cheese’ was named from coactum ‘coagulated’ milk, as though coaxeus. Then after they ceased to be satisfied with those foods which nature supplied of her own accord without the use of fire, among which were apples and like fruits, they boiled down in a pot those which could be made less raw. From olla ‘pot’ the holera ‘vegetables’ were named, because it is the task of ollae ‘pots’ to soften the raw holera ‘vegetables.’ One of these, because it entitur ‘is dug out’ of the earth for cooking, was called ruapa, from which comes rapa ‘turnip.’ Olea ‘olive berry,’ from elaia; the orchitis is a large kind of olive, so called because the Athenians call it orchen mora ‘the sacred oliveberry.’

5.109 From here we go on to domestic animals as meat for the table. As suilla ‘pork’ is said from ‘swine,’ so other meats are named from the other kinds of animals. The nature of things shows us that men began to use this first roasted, second boiled, third cooked in its own juice. Assum ‘roasted’ is said because as a result of the fire it assudescit ‘begins to sweat,’ that is uvescit ‘becomes moist’: for uvidum is the same as humidum ‘moist,’ and therefore where this moisture is not present, there is a lack of juice; and therefore the roast that is to sweat drips on account of the heat, and just as the raw meat has an excess of moisture, so the thoroughly cooked meat has very little juice. Elixum ‘boiled’ is said from the liquor ‘fluid’ of the water; and ex iure ‘cooked in its own juice’ is said because this is more iucundum ‘tasty’ than seasoning.

5.110 Succidia ‘leg of pork’ is said from sues caedendae ‘the cutting up of the swine’; for this was the first domestic animal that the owners began to slaughter and to salt in order to keep the meat unspoiled. Tegus ‘piece of the back’ of swine, from this, that by this piece the animal tegitur ‘is covered.’
Perna ‘ham,’ from pes ‘foot.’ Sueris, from the animal’s name. Offula ‘rib-roast,’ ‘from offa, a very small sueris. Insicia ‘minced meat’ from this, that the meat is insecta ‘cut up,’ just as in the Song of the Salii the word ‘slice’ is used, for which, in the offering of the vitals, the word prosectum is now used. Murtatum ‘myrtle-pudding,’ from murta ‘myrtle-berry,’ because this berry is added plentifully to its stuffings.

5.111 An intestine of the thick sort that was stuffed, they call a Lucanica ‘Lucanian,’ because the soldiers got acquainted with it from the Lucanians, just as what they found at Falerii they call a Faliscan haggis; and they say fundolus ‘bag-sausage’ from fundus ‘bottom’, because this is not like the other intestines, but is open at only one end: from this, I think, the Greeks called it the blind intestine. From the same fartura ‘stuffing’ were called the farcimina ‘stuffies’ in the case of the vital organs for the sacrifice, whence also farticultim ‘stufflet’; in this case, because it is the most slender intestine that is stuffed, it is called hila from that hilum ‘whit’ which Ennius uses:
And of loss not a whit does she suffer.
Because at the top of this stuffy there is a little projection, it is called an apexabo, because the projection is like the apex ‘pointed cap’ on a human head. The third kind of sausage is the longavo, because it is longer than those two others.

5.112 The augmentum ‘increase-cake’ is so called because a piece of it is cut out and put on the liver of the sacrificed victim at the presentation to the deity, for the sake of augendi ‘increasing’ it. Magmentum ‘added offering,’ from magis ‘more,’ because it attaches magis ‘more’ closely to the worshipper’s piety: for this reason magmentaria fana ‘sanctuaries for the offering of magmenta’ have been established in certain places, that the added offering may there be laid on the original and offered with it. Mattea ‘cold meat-pie’ is so named because in Greek it is ματτύη. Likewise from the Greeks is another meat dish called . . . , which contains item by item the following: …. an egg, a truffle.

5.113 XXIII. Lana ‘wool’ is a Greek word, as Polybius and Callimachus write. Purpura ‘purple,’ from the colour of the purpura ‘purple-fish’ of the sea: a Punic word, because it is said to have been first brought to Italy by the Phoenicians.
Stamen ‘warp,’ from stare ‘to stand,’ because by this the whole fabric on the loom stat ‘stands’ up. Subtemen ‘woof,’ because it subit ‘goes under’ the stamen ‘warp.’ Trama ‘wide-meshed cloth,’ because the cold trameat ‘goes through’ this kind of garment. Densum ‘close-woven cloth,’ from the dentes ‘dents’ of the sley with which it is beaten. Filum ‘thread,’ because it is the smallest hilum ‘shred’; for this is the smallest thing in a garment.

5.114 Pannus ‘bobbin,’ is a Greek word, where E has become A. Panuvellium ‘bobbin with thread’ was said from panus ‘bobbin’ and volvere ‘to wind’ the thread. Tunica ‘shirt,’ from tuendo ‘protecting’ the body; tunica as though it were tuendica.
Toga ‘toga’ from tegere ‘to cover.’ Cinctus ‘belt’ and cingiltum ‘girdle,’ from cingere ‘to gird,’ the one assigned to men and the other to women.

5.115 XXIV. Arma ‘arms,’ from arcere ‘to ward off,’ because with them we arcemus ‘ward off’ the enemy. Parma ‘cavalry shield,’ because from the centre it is par ‘even’ in every direction. Conum ‘pointed helmet,’ because it cogitur ‘is narrowed’ toward the top. Hasta ‘spear,’ because it is usually carried astans ‘standing up.’ Iaculum ‘javelin,’ because it is made that it may iaci ‘be thrown.’ Tragula ‘thong-javelin,’ from traicere ‘to pierce.’ Scutum ‘shield,’ from sectura ‘cutting,’ as though secutum, because it is made of wood cut into small pieces.
Umbones ‘bosses’ from a Greek word, namely ambones.

5.116 Gladium ‘sword,’ from clades ‘slaughter,’ with change of C to G, because the gladium is made for a slaughter of the enemy; likewise from its omen was said pilum, by which the enemy periret ‘might perish,’ as though perilum. Lorica ‘corselet,’ because they made chest-protectors from lora ‘thongs’ of rawhide; afterwards the Gallic corselet of iron was included under this name, an iron shirt made of links.
Balteum ‘sword-belt,’ because they used to wear a leather belt bullatum ‘with an amulet attached,’ was called balteum. Ocrea ‘shin-guard’ was so called because it was set in the way ob crus ‘before the shin.’ Galea ‘leather helmet,’ from galerum ‘leather bonnet,’ because many of the ancients used them.

5.117 Tubae ‘trumpets,’ from tubi ‘tubes,’ a name by which even now the trumpeters of the sacrifices call them. Cornua ‘horns,’ because these, which are now of bronze, were then made from the cornu ‘horn’ of an ox. Vallum ‘camp wall,’ either because no one could varicare ‘straddle’ over it, or because the ends of the forked sticks used there had individually the shape of the letter V. Cervi ‘chevaux-de-frise,’ from the likeness to the horns of a cervus ‘stag’; so the rest of the terms in general, from a likeness, as vineae ‘mantlets,’ testudo ‘tortoise,’ aries ‘ram.’

5.118 XXV. The eating-table they used to call a cilliba; it was square, as even now it is in the camp; the name cilliba came from cibus ‘victuals.’ Afterwards it was made round, and the fact that it was media ‘central’ with us and mesa ‘central’ with the Greeks, is the probable reason for its being called a mensa ‘table’; unless indeed they used to put on, amongst the victuals, many that were mensa ‘measured out.’ Trulla ‘ladle,’ from its likeness to a trua ‘gutter,’ but because this is big and the other is small, they named it as if it were truella ‘small trua’; this the Greeks call a trulla. A trua ‘gutter’ is that by which they pour the water from the kitchen into the privy: trua, because by it the water iravolat ‘flies across.’ From the same is named the truleum ‘basin’; for it is like in shape, except that it is broader because it is to hold water, and that the handle is not channelled except in the case of a wine-truleum.

5.119 There was also the matellio ‘pot,’ named as well as modelled after the matula ‘chamber-pot,’ which, after it had got quite far away from the shape of a matula, was called also an aqualis ‘wash-basin,’ from aqua ‘water.’ A jar for water they called a futis, because with it in the dining-room they infundebant ‘poured on’ the guests’ hands the water that had been brought; for the performance of this same service there was afterward added a vessel with the Greek name of names ‘dwarf’ and the Latin name harbatus ‘bearded man,’ because of the Greek figure.
Pelvis ‘basin’ was earlier pedeluis, from the lavatio ‘washing’ of the pedes ‘feet.’ Candelabrum ‘candlestick,’ from candela ‘taper’; for from these blazing cords were hung. The lucerna ‘lamp’ was invented later; it was named from lux ‘light’ or because the Greeks call it λύχνον.

5.120 Vessels on the eating-table: The vessel in which they set on the table porridge or anything with a great deal of juice, they called a catinus ‘pot,’ from capere ‘to contain,’ unless it is because the Sicilians call that in which they put their roasts a κάτινον.
The magida and the langula, both meaning ‘platter’ they named from the magnitudo ‘size’ of the one and the latitudo ‘width’ of the other. Patenae ‘plates’ they called from patulum ‘spreading,’ and the little plates, with which they offered the gods a preliminary sample of the dinner, they called patellae ‘saucers.’
Tryblia ‘bowls’ and canistra ‘bread-baskets,’ though people think that they are Latin, are really Greek: for τρύβλιον and κανοῦν are said in Greek. The remaining terms I pass by, since their sources are obvious.

5.121 XXVI. A round table for wine was formerly called a cilliba, as even now it is in the camp. This seems to be derived from the Greek kilikeo ‘buffet,’ from the cup cylix: which stands on it. The capides ‘bowls’ and smaller capulae ‘cups’ were named from capere ‘to seize,’ because they have handles to make it possible for them prehendi ‘to be grasped,’ that is, capi ‘to be seized.’ Their shapes we even now see among the sacred vessels, old-fashioned shapes in wood and earthenware.

5.122 In addition there were among the drinking-cups the paterae ‘libation-saucers,’ named from this, that they patent ‘are open’ wide. For the sake of preserving the ancient practice, they use cups of this kind even now for passing around the potio ‘draught’ at the public banquet, when the magistrates enter into their office; and it is this kind of cup that the magistrate uses in sacrificing to the gods, when he gives the wine to the god. Pocula ‘drinking-cups,’ from potio ‘draught,’ whence potatio ‘drinking bout’ and also posca ‘sour wine.’ These may however come from πότος, because potos is the Greek for potio.

5.123 The source of a drink is aqua ‘water,’ so called because its surface is aequa ‘level.’ A fons ‘spring’ is that from which running water funditur ‘is poured’ out of the earth, just as fistula ‘pipe’ is that from which there is a fusus ‘outpour’ of water.
The sinum is a wine-jar of a larger sort, called from sinus ‘belly,’ because the sinum had a greater cavity than cups. Likewise there are those called lepestae, the kind of wine-jars that are even now, on the days of the Sabine festivals, placed on the table of the gods;
I have found in ancient Greek writers a kind of cup called δεπέσταν, for which reason the source of the name quite certainly set out from there into the Sabine and Roman territory.

5.124 Those who were giving wine in such a way as to pour it little by little, called the vessel a guttus ‘cruet,’ from the guttae ‘drops’; those who were taking it little by little from a larger container, called the instrument a simpuvium ‘dipping ladle,’ from sumere ‘to take out.’ Into its place, in banquets, there came from Greece the epichysis ‘pouring ladle’ and the cyathus ‘dipping ladle’; but in the sacrifices the guttus and the simpuvium remained in use.

5.125 A second kind of table for vessels was of stone, an oblong rectangle with one pedestal; it was called a cartibulum. When I was a boy this used to be placed in many persons’ houses near the opening in the roof of the court, and on and around it were set bronze vessels; perhaps cartibulum was said from gerere ‘to carry.’

5.126 XXVII. Besides there was a third kind of table for vessels, rectangular like the second kind; it was called an urnarium, because it was the piece of furniture in the kitchen on which by preference they set and kept the urnae ‘urns’ filled with water. From this even now the place in front of the bath where the urn-table is wont to be placed, is called an urnarium. Urnae ‘urns’ got their name from the fact that they urinant ‘dive’ in the drawing of water, like an urinator ‘diver.’ Urinare means to be plunged into water.

5.127 Amburvum, a pot whose name is made from urvum ‘curved,’ because it is so bent that it turns up again like the part of the plough which is named the urvum ‘beam.’ Calix ‘cooking-pot,’ from caldum ‘hot,’ because hot porridge was served up in it, and they drank hot liquid from it. The vessel in which they coquebant ‘cooked’ their food, from that they called a caccabus. Veru ‘spit,’ from versare ‘to turn.’

5.128 XXVIII. From sedere ‘to sit’ were named sedes ‘seat,’ sedile ‘chair,’ solium ‘throne,’ seltae ‘stools,’ siliquastrum ‘wicker chair’; then from these subsellium ‘bench’: as subsipere is said a thing does not sapit ‘taste’ clearly, so subsellium because it was not clearly a sella ‘stool.’ Where two had room on a seat of this sort, it was called a bisellium ‘double seat.’ An area ‘strong-chest,’ because thieves arcebantur ‘were kept away’ from it when it was locked. Armarium ‘closet’ and armamentarium ‘warehouse,’ from the same source, but with different suffixes.

5.129 XXIX. Mundus is a woman’s toilet set, named from munditia ‘neatness.’ Ornatus ‘toilet set,’ as if natus ore ‘born ‘from the face’; for from this especially is taken that which is to beautify a woman, and therefore this is handled with the help of a mirror. Calamistrum ‘curling-iron,’ because the hair is arranged with irons when they have been calfacta ‘heated’ in the embers.
The one who attended to them was called a cinerarius ’ember-man,’ from cinis ’embers.’ Discerniculum ‘bodkin,’ with which the hair discernitur ‘is parted.’
Pecten ‘comb,’ because by it the hair explicatur ‘is spread out.’ Speculum ‘mirror,’ from specere ‘to look at,’ because in it they spectant ‘look at’ themselves.

5.130 Vestis ‘garment’ from velli ‘shaggy hair,’ or from the fact that the shorn wool of a sheep, taken as a whole, is a vellus ‘fleece’: this was said because they formerly vellebant ‘plucked’ it. Lanea ‘woollen headband,’ because made from lana ‘wool.’ That which was to hold the hair, was called a reticulum ‘netcap,’ from rete ‘net’; rete, from raritudo ‘looseness of mesh.’ Likewise the woven band with which they were to fasten the hair on the head, was called a capital ‘headband,’ from caput ‘head’; and this the sub-priestesses are accustomed to wear on their heads even now. So rica ‘veil,’ from ritus ‘fashion,’ because according to the Roman ritus, when women make a sacrifice, they veil their heads. The mitra ‘turban’ and in general the other things that go on the head, were later importations, along with their Greek names.

5.131 XXX. Next I shall first touch upon those things which are for putting on, then those which are for wrapping about the person. Capitium ‘vest,’ from the fact that it capit ‘holds’ the chest, that is, as the ancients said, it comprehendit ‘includes’ it. One kind of put-on goes subtus ‘below,’ from which it is called subucula ‘underskirt’; a second kind goes supra ‘above,’ from which it is called supparus ‘dress,’ unless, this is so called because they say it in the same way in Oscan. Of the second sort there are likewise two varieties, one called palla ‘outer dress,’ because it is outside and palam ‘openly’ visible; the other is intus ‘inside,’ from which it is called indusium ‘under-dress,’ as though intusium, of which Plautus speaks:
Under-dress, a bordered dress, of marigold and saffron hue.
There are many garments which extravagance brought at later times, whose names are clearly Greek, such as asbestinon ‘fire-proof.’

5.132 Amictui ‘wrap’ is thus named because it is ambiectum ‘thrown about,’ that is,circumiectum ‘thrown around,’ from which moreover they gave the name of circumiectui ‘throw-around’ to that with which women envelop themselves after they are dressed; and any wrap that has a purple edge around it, they call circumtextum ‘edge-weave.’ Those of very long ago called a wrap a ricinium ‘mantilla’; it was called ricinium from reicere ‘to throw back,’ because they wore it doubled, throwing back one half of it over the other.

5.133 Pallia ‘cloaks’ from this, that they consisted of two single paria ‘equal’ pieces of cloth, called parilia at first, from which R was eliminated for smoothness of sound. Parapechia ‘elbow-stripes,’ chlamydes ‘mantles,’ and many others, are Greek.
Laena ‘overcoat,’ because they contained much lana wool,’ even like two togas: as the ricinium was the most ancient garment of the women, so this double garment is the most ancient garment of the men.

5.131 XXXI. Farming tools which were made for planting or cultivating the crops. Sarculum ‘hoe,’ from severe ‘to plant’ and sarire ‘to weed.’ Ligo ‘mattock,’ because with this, on account of its width, what is under the ground legitur ‘is gathered’ more easily. Pala ‘spade’ from pangere ‘to fix in the earth’; the L was originally GL. Rutrum ‘shovel,’ previously ruitrum, from ruendo ‘to fall in a heap.’

5.135 Aratrum ‘plough,’ because it arruit ‘piles up’ the earth. Its iron part is called vomer ‘ploughshare,’ because with its help it the more vomit ‘spews up’ the earth. The dens ‘colter,’ because by this the earth is bit; the straight piece of wood which stands above this is called the stiva ‘handle,’ from stare ‘to stand,’ and the wooden cross-piece on it is the manicula ‘hand-grip,’ because it is held by the manus ‘hand’ of the ploughman. That which is so to speak a wagon-tongue between the oxen, is called a bura ‘beam,’ from botes ‘oxen’; others call this an urvum, from the curvum ‘curve.’ The hole under the middle of the yoke, which is stopped up by inserting the end of the beam, is called count, from cavum ‘hole.’ lugum ‘yoke’ and iumentum ‘yoke-animal,’ from iunctus ‘joining or yoking.’

5.136 Irpices ‘harrows’ are a straight piece of wood with many teeth, which oxen draw just like a wagon, that they may pull up the things that serpunt ‘creep’ in the earth; they were called sirpices and afterwards, by some persons, irpices, with the S worn off. Rastelli ‘hay-rakes,’ like harrows, are saw-toothed instruments, but light in weight; therefore a man in the meadows at haying time corradit ‘scrapes together’ with this the stalks, from which rasus ‘scraping’ they are called rastelli.
Rastri ‘rakes’ are sharp-toothed instruments by which they scratch the earth deep, and eruunt ‘dig it up,’ from which rutus ‘digging’ they are called ruastri.

5.137 Falces ‘sickles,’ itom. far ‘spelt,’ with the change of a letter; in Campania, these are called seculae, from secare ‘to cut’; from a certain likeness to these are named others, the falces fenariae ‘hay scythes’ and arborariae ‘tree pruning-hooks,’ of obvious origin, and falces lumariae and sirpiculae, whose source is obscure. Lumariae are those with which lumecta are cut, that is when thorns grow up in the fields; because the farmers solvunt ‘loosen,’ that is, luunt ‘loose,’ them from the earth, they are called lumecta ‘thorn-thickets.’ Falces sirpiculae are named from sirpare ‘to plait of rushes,’ that is, alligare ‘to fasten’; thus broken jars are said to have been sirpata ‘rush-covered,’ when they are fastened together with rushes. They use rushes in the vineyard for tying up bundles of fuel, cut stakes, and kindling. These sickles they call zanclae in the peninsular dialect.

5.138 The pilum ‘pestle’ is so named because with it they pisunt ‘pound’ the spelt, from which the place where this is done is called a pistrinum ‘mill’- — L and S often change places with each other — and from that afterwards pistrina ‘bakery’ and pistrix ‘woman baker,’ words used in Lucilius’s City. Trapetes are the mill-stones of the olive-mill: they call them trapetes from terere ‘to rub to pieces,’ unless the word is Greek; and molae from mollire ‘to soften,’ for what is thrown in there is softened by their motion.
Vallum ‘small winnowing-fan,’ from volatus ‘flight,’ because when they swing this to and fro the light particles volant ‘fly’ away from there. Ventilabrum ‘winnowing-fork,’ because with this the grain ventilatur ‘is tossed’ in the air.

5.139 Those means with which field produce and necessary things are transported. Of these, fiscina rush-basket ‘was named from ferre’ to carry’; corbes ‘baskets,’ from the fact that into them they corruebant ‘piled up’ corn-ears or something else; from this the smaller ones were called corbulae. Of those which animals draw, the tragula ‘sledge,’ because it trahitur ‘is dragged’ along the ground by the animal; sirpea ‘wicker wagon,’ which sirpatur ‘is plaited’ of osiers, that is, is woven by binding them together, in which dung or something else is conveyed.

5.140 Vehiculum ‘wagon,’ in which beans or something else is conveyed, because it vietur ‘is plaited’ or because vehitur ‘carrying is done’ by it. A shorter kind of wagon is called by others, as it were, an arcera ‘covered wagon,’ which is named even in the Twelve Tables; because the wagon was made of boards like an arca ‘strong box,’ it was called an arcera. Plaustrum ‘cart,’ from the fact that unlike those which I have mentioned above it is palam ‘open’ not to a certain degree but everywhere, for the objects which are conveyed in it perlucent ‘shine forth to view,’ such as stone slabs, wooden beams, and building material.

5.141 XXXII. Aedificia ‘buildings’ are, like many things, named from a part: from aedes ‘hearths’ and facere ‘to make’ comes certainly aedificium. Oppidum ‘town’ also is named from ops ‘strength,’ because it is fortified for ops ‘strength,’ as a place where the people may be, and because for spending their lives there is opus ‘need’ of place where they may be in safety. Moenia ‘walls’ were so named because they muniebant ‘fortified’ the towns with opus ‘work.’ What they exaggerabant ‘heaped up’ that it might be moenitius ‘better fortified,’ was called aggeres ‘dikes,’ and that which was to support the dike was called a moerus ‘wall.’ Because carrying was done for the sake of muniendi ‘fortifying,’ the work was a munus ‘duty’; because they enclosed the town by this moenus, it was a moerus ‘wall.’

5.142 Its top was called pinnae ‘pinnacles,’ from those feathers which distinguished soldiers are accustomed to wear on their helmets, and among the gladiators the Samnites wear. Turres ‘towers,’ from torvi ‘fiercely staring eyes,’ because they stand out in front of the rest. Where they left a way in the wall, by which they might portare ‘carry’ goods into the town, these they called portae ‘gates.’

5.143 Many founded towns in Latium by the Etruscan ritual; that is, with a team of cattle, a bull and a cow on the inside, they ran a furrow around with a plough (for reasons of religion they did this on an auspicious day), that they might be fortified by a ditch and a wall. The place whence they had ploughed up the earth, they called a fossa ‘ditch,’ and the earth thrown inside it they called the murus ‘wall.’ The orbis ‘circle’ which was made back of this, was the beginning of the urbs ‘city’; because the circle was post murum ‘back of the wall,’ it was called a postmoerium; it sets the limits for the taking of the auspices for the city. Stone markers of the pomerium stand both around Aricia and around Rome. Therefore towns also which had earlier had the plough drawn around them, were termed urbes ‘cities,’ from orbis ‘circle’ and urvum ‘curved’; therefore also all our colonies are mentioned as urbes in the old writings, because they had been founded in just the same way as Rome; therefore also colonies and cities conduntur ‘are founded,’ because they are placed inside the pomerium.

5.144 The first town of the Roman line which was founded in Latium, was Lavinium; for there are our Penates. This was named from the daughter of Latinus who was wedded to Aeneas, Lavinia. Thirty years after this, a second town was founded, named Alba; it was named from the alba ‘white’ sow. This sow, when she had escaped from Aeneas’s ship to Lavinium, gave birth to a litter of thirty young: from this prodigy, thirty years after the founding of Lavinium, this second city was established, called Alba Longa ‘the Long White City,’ on account of the colour of the sow and the nature of the place. From here came Rhea, mother of Romulus; from her,
Romulus; from him, Rome.

5.145 In a town there are vici ‘rows,’ from via ‘street,’ because there are buildings on each side of the via. Fundulae ‘blind streets,’ from fundus ‘bottom,’ because they have no way out and there is no passage through. Angiportum ‘alley,’ either because it is angustum ‘narrow,’ or from agere ‘to drive’ and portus ‘entrance.’ The place to which they might conferre ‘bring’ their contentions and might ferre ‘carry’ articles which they wished to sell, they called a forum.

5.146 Where things of one class were brought, a denomination was added from that class, as the Forum Boarium ‘Cattle Market,’ the Forum Holitorium ‘Vegetable Market’: this was the old Macellum, where holera ‘vegetables’ in quantity were brought; such places even now the Spartans call a macellum, but the Ionians call the entrances to gardens the macellotae of gardens, and speak of the macella ‘entrances’ to small fortified villages. Along the Tiber, at the sanctuary of Portunus, they call it the Forum Piscarium ‘Fish Market’; therefore Plautus says:
Down at the Market that sells the fish.
Where things of various kinds are sold, at the Cornel Cherry Groves, is the Forum Cuppedinis ‘Luxury Market,’ from cuppedium ‘delicacy,’ that is, from fastidium ‘fastidiousness’; many call it the Forum Cupidinis ‘Greed Market,’ from cupiditas ‘greed.’

5.147 After all these things which pertain to human sustenance had been brought into one place, and the place had been built upon, it was called a Macellum, as certain writers say, because there was a garden there; others say that it was because there had been there a house of a thief with the cognomen Macellus, which had been demolished by the state, and from which this building has been constructed which is called from him a Macellum.

5.148 In the Forum is the Lacus Curtius ‘Pool of Curtius’; it is quite certain that it is named from Curtius, but the story about it has three versions: for Procilius does not tell the same story as Piso, nor did Cornelius follow the story given by Procilius. Procilius states that in this place the earth yawned open, and the matter was by decree of the senate referred to the haruspices; they gave the answer that the God of the Dead demanded the fulfilment of a forgotten vow, namely that the bravest citizen be sent down to him. Then a certain Curtius, a brave man, put on his war-gear, mounted his horse, and turning away from the Temple of Concord, plunged into the gap, horse and all; upon which the place closed up and gave his body a burial divinely approved, and left to his clan a lasting memorial.

5.149 Piso in his Annals writes that in the Sabine War between Romulus and Tatius, a Sabine hero named Mettius Curtius, when Romulus with his men had charged down from higher ground and driven in the Sabines, got away into a swampy spot which at that time was in the Forum, before the sewers had been made, and escaped from there to his own men on the Capitoline ; and from this the pool found its name.

5.150 Cornelius and Lutatius write that this place was struck by lightning, and by decree of the senate was fenced in: because this was done by the consul Curtius, who had M. Genucius as his colleague, it was called the Lacus Curtius.

5.151 The arx ‘Citadel,’ from arcere ‘to keep off,’ because this is the most strongly fortified place in the City, from which the enemy can most easily be kept away. The carcer ‘prison,’ from coercere ‘to confine,’ because those who are in it are prevented from going out. In this prison, the part which is under the ground is called the Tullianum, because it was added by King Tullius. Because at Syracuse the place where men are kept under guard on account of transgressions is called the Latomiae ‘quarries,’ from that the word was taken over as lautumia, because here also in this place there were formerly stone quarries.

5.152 On the Aventine is the Lauretum ‘Laurel Grove,’ called from the fact that King Tatius was buried there, who was killed by the Laurentes ‘Laurentines,’ or else from the laurea ‘laurel’ wood, because there was one there which was cut down and a street run through with houses on both sides: just as between the Sacred Way and the higher part of the Macellum are the Corneta ‘Cornel-Cherry Groves,’ from corni ‘cornel-cherry trees,’ which though cut away left their name to the place; just as the Aesculetum ‘Oak-Grove’ is named from aesculus ‘oak-tree,’ and the Fagutal ‘Beech-tree Shrine’ from fagus ‘beech-tree,’ whence also Jupiter Fagutalis ‘of the Beech-tree,’ because his shrine is there.

5.153 Armilustrium ‘purification of the arms,’ from the going around of the lustrum ‘purificatory offering’; and the same place is called the Circus Maximus, because, being the place where the games are performed, it is built up circum ’round about’ for the shows, and because there the procession goes and the horses race circum ‘around’ the turning-posts.
Thus in The Story of the Helmet-Horn the following is said at the coming of the soldier, whom they encircle and make fun of:
Why do we refrain from making sport? See, here’s our circus-ring.
In the Circus, the place from which the horses are let go at the start, is now called the Carceres ‘Prison-stalls,’ but Naevius called it the Town. Carceres was said, because the horses coercentur ‘are held in check,’ that they may not go out from there before the official has given the sign. Because the Stalls were formerly adorned with pinnacles and towers like a wall, the poet wrote:
When the Dictator mounts his car, he rides the whole way to the Town.

5.154 The very centre of the Circus is called ad Murciae ‘at Murcia’s,’ as Procilius said, from the urcei ‘pitchers,’ because this spot was in the potters’ quarter; others say that it is derived from murtetum ‘myrtle-grove,’ because that was there: of which a trace remains in that the chapel of Venus Murtea ‘of the Myrtle’ is there even to this day. Likewise for a similar reason the Circus Flaminius got its name, for it is built circum ‘around’ the Flaminian Plain, and there also the horses race circum ‘around’ the turning-posts at the Taurian Games.

5.155 The Comitium ‘Assembly-Place’ was named from this, that to it they coibant ‘came together’ for the comitia curiata ‘curiate meetings’ and for lawsuits. The curiae ‘meeting-houses’ are of two kinds: for there are those where the priests were to attend to affairs of the gods, like the old meetinghouses, and those where the senate should attend to affairs of men, like the Hostilian Meeting-House, so called because King Hostilius was the first to build it. In front of this is the Rostra ‘Speaker’s Stand’ of which this is the name — the rostra ‘beaks’ taken from the enemy’s ships have been fastened to it. A little to the right of it, in the direction of the Comitium, is a lower platform, where the envoys of the nations who had been sent to the senate were to wait; this, like many things, was called from a part of it, being named the Graecostasis ‘Stand of the Greeks.’

5.156 Above the Graecostasis was the Senaculum ‘Senate-Stand,’ where the Temple of Concord and the Basilica Opimia are; it was called Senaculum as a place where the senate or the seniores ‘elders’ were to take their places, named like γερουσία ‘assembly of elders’ among the Greeks. Lautolae ‘baths,’ from lavare ‘to wash,’ because there near the Double Janus there once were hot springs.
From these there was a pool in the Lesser Velabrum, from which fact it was called velabrum because there they vehebantur ‘were conveyed’ by skiffs, like that greater Velabrum of which mention has been made above.’

5.157 The Aequimaelium ‘Maelius-Flat,’ because the house of Maelius was aequata ‘laid flat’ by the state since he wished to seize the power and be king. The place Ad Busta Gallica ‘At the Gauls’ Tombs,’ because on the recovery of Rome the bones of the Gauls who had held Rome were heaped up there and fenced in.
The place near the Cloaca Maxima which is called Doliola ‘The Jars,’ where spitting is prohibited, from some doliola ‘jars’ that were buried under the earth. Two stories about these are handed down: some say that bones of dead men were in them, others that certain sacred objects belonging to Numa Pompilius were buried in them after his death. The Argiletum, according to some writers, was named from Argus of Larisa, because he came to this place and was buried there; according to others, from the argilla ‘clay,’ because this kind of earth is found at this place.

5.158 The Clivus Publiciuus ‘Publician Incline,’ from the members of the Publician gens who as plebeian aediles constructed it by state authority. For like reasons the Clivus Pullius and the Clivus Cosconius, because they are said to have been constructed by men of these names as Street-Overseers. The Incline Next-To-Flora is up towards the old Capitol, because there is in that place a chapel (sacellum) of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and this is older than the temple (aedes) which has been built on the Capitol.

5.159 On the Esquiline there is a Vicus Africus ‘African Row,’ because there, it is said, the hostages from Africa in the Punic War were kept under guard.
The Vicus Cyprius ‘Good Row,’ from cuprum, because there the Sabines who were taken in as citizens settled, and they named it from the good omen: for cyprum means ‘good’ in Sabine. Near this is the Vicus Sceleratus ‘Accursed Row,’ named from Tullia wife of Tarquin the Proud, because when her father was lying dead in it she ordered her muleteer to drive her carriage on over his body.

5.160 XXXIII. Since a Row consists of houses, let us now look at the names of these. Domus ‘house’ is a Greek word, and therefore in the temples the room in front of the hall where the abode of the god is the Greeks call πρόδομος ‘front room,’ and that which is behind they call οπισθόδομος ‘back room.’
Aedes ‘house,’ from aditus ‘approach,’ because they adibant ‘approached’ it on level footing. Therefore the herald at an announced funeral says that those who are carried out of any building made of boards, are carried ex aedibus ‘from the house’; and all the country-houses in the census-list we from that fact call aedes.

5.161 The cavum aedium ‘inner court’ is said of the roofed part which is left open within the house-walls, for common use by all. If in this no place was left which is open to the sky, it was called a testudo ‘tortoise’ from the likeness to the testudo, as it is at the general’s headquarters and in the camps. If some space was left in the centre to get the light, the place into which the rain fell down was called the impluvium, and the place where it ran together up above was called the compluvium; both from pluvia ‘rain.’ The Tuscanicum ‘Tuscan-style’ was named from the Tusci ‘Etruscans,’ after the Romans began to imitate their style of inner court. The atrium ‘reception hall’ was named from the Etruscans of Atria; for from them the model was taken.

5.162 Around the inner court the house was divided by walls, making rooms useful for different purposes: where they wished something to be stored away, they called it a cella ‘store-room,’ from celare ‘to conceal’; a penaria ‘food-pantry,’ where penus ‘food’ was kept; a cubiculum ‘sleeping-chamber,’ where they cubabant ‘lay down’ for rest; where they cenabant ‘dined,’ they called it a cenaculum ‘dining-room,’ as even now such rooms are named at Lanuvium in the Temple of Juno, in the rest of Latium, at Falerii, and at Corduba. After they began to take dinner upstairs, all the rooms of the upper story were called cenacula; still later, when they began to have several rooms for dining, they called one the hibernum ‘winter-room’ of the house, as in camps they speak of the hiberna ‘winter camp,’ from hiems ‘winter’; and on the other hand . . .

HERE THE MODEL COPY LACKED TWO LEAVES

5.163 XXXIV. . . . . which worship Porcius means when, speaking of Ennius, he says that he dwelt in the locality of Tutilina. Next comes the Naevian Gate, so called because it is in the Naevian Woods: for the locality where it is, is called by this name. Then the Porta Rauduscula ‘Copper Gate,’ because it was at one time covered with copper. Copper is called raudus; from this the ancients had it written in their formula for symbolic sales:
Let him strike the balance-pan with a piece of raudus.
From here, the Lavernal Gate, from the altar of Laverna, because her altar is there.

5.164 Besides, inside the walls, I see, there are gates on the Palatine: the Gate of Mucio, from mugitus ‘lowing,’ because by it they drove the herds out into the cow-pastures which were then in front of the ancient town; a second called the Romanula ‘Little Roman,’ named from Rome, which has steps in New Street at the Chapel of Volupia.’

5.165 The third gate is the Janual Gate, named from Janus, and therefore a statue of Janus was set up there, and the binding practice was instituted by Pompilius, as Piso writes in his Annals, that the gate should always be open except when there was no war anywhere. The story that has come down to us is that it was closed when Pompilius was king, and afterwards when Titus Manlius was consul, at the end of the first war with Carthage, and then opened again in the same year.

5.166 XXXV. On the subject of beds, the origins of the names, so far as I have observed them, are the following: Lectica ‘couch,’ because they legebant ‘gathered’ the straw-coverings and the grass with which to make them, as even now is done in camp; these couches, that they might not be on the earth, they raised up on these materials; — unless rather from the fact that the ancient Greeks called a bed a λέκτρον. Those who covered up a couch, called the coverings segestria, because the coverings in general were made from the seges ‘wheat-stalks,’ as even now is done in the camp; unless the word is from the Greeks, for there it is στέγαστρον. Because the bed of a dead man fertur ‘is carried,’ our ancestors called it a feretrum ‘bier,’ and the Greeks called it a φέρετρον.

5.167 After they had passed to the use of culcitae ‘mattresses and pillows,’ because into them they calcabant ‘pressed’ chaff or stuffing or something else, the article was called a culcita from inculcare ‘to press in.’ Whatever they spread upon this, they called a stragulum ‘cover’ from sternere ‘to spread.’ The pulvinar ‘cushioned seat of honour’ they derived either from plumae ‘feathers’ or from pellulae ‘furs.’
That ‘with which they operibantur’ were covered,’ they called operimenta ‘covers,’ and pallia ‘covers of a Greek sort’ they called apercula. Among these there are many foreign words, such as sagum ‘soldier’s blanket ‘and reno ‘cloak of reindeer skin,’ which are Gallic, and gaunaca ‘heavy Oriental cloak’ and amphimallum ‘cloak shaggy on both sides,’ which are Greek; and on the other hand toral ‘valance,’ in front of the torus ‘bolster,’ is Latin, and so in torus ‘bolster,’ from tortum ‘twisted,’ because it is ready for use.’ From likeness to this is named the torulus ‘knob,’ an ornament on a woman’s head.

5.168 That by which they scandebant ‘mounted’ by a single scansio ‘step’ into a bed that was not high, they called a scabellum ‘bed step’; that by which they mounted into a higher bed, a scamnum ‘bed steps.’ A double step is called a gradus ‘pace,’ because it gerit ‘carries’ a higher step on the lower.
Peristromata ‘bedspreads’ and peripetasmata ‘bedcurtains’ are Greek words, so are other things which are used for banquets as well — and of them there are quite a number.

5.169 XXXVI. The names of stamped money of bronze and silver are the following: as from aes ‘copper’; dupondius ‘two-a piece’ from duo pondera ‘two weights,’ because one weight was called an assipondium ‘as piece’; this for the reason that an as was a libra ‘unit’ pondo ‘by weight.’ From this the rest were named from the number up to centussis ‘one hundred asses,’ as as when the number is one, tressis from three asses, and so by regular analogy up to nonussis ‘nine asses.’

5.170 At the number ten this changes, because first there is the decussis from decem asses ‘ten asses,’ second the vicessis ‘twenty asses’ from two decusses, which twisted, like a tormentum or piece of artillery which was ready to fire when the ropes, its source of propulsion, had been twisted. ‘That is, similarity in shape. ‘The shape in which the hair was arranged. is customarily pronounced bicessis, from duo ‘two’; the rest harmonize, in that the formation is like tricessis regularly up to centussis, after which there is no special word for larger sums of copper money: for ducenti ‘two hundred’ and higher numbers which are made analogically do not indicate asses any more than they do denarii or any other things.

5.171 The smallest piece of copper is a sextula, so named because it is the sexta ‘sixth’ part of an ounce.
The semuncia ‘half-ounce,’ because it is the half of an ounce: se equals dimidium ‘half,’ as in selibra ‘half-pound’ and semodius ‘half-peck.’ Uncia ‘ounce,’ from unum ‘one.’ Sextans ‘sixth,’ from the fact that it is the sixth part of an as, as the quadrans ‘fourth’ is that which is a fourth, and the triens ‘third’ that which is a third. Semis ‘half-as,’ because it is a semias, that is, the half of an as, as has been said above.
The septunx ‘seven ounces,’ contracted from septem and uncia.

5.172 The remaining words are less clear, because they are expressed by subtraction, and those elements from which the subtraction is made are such that they keep their last syllables: as that from which one dempta uncia ‘ounce is taken,’ is a deunx ‘eleven twelfths’; if a sextans is taken away, it is a dextans ‘five sixths’; if a quadrans is taken away, it is a dodrans; it is a hes ‘two thirds,’ or as it once was, a des, if a triens is demptus ‘taken off.’

5.173 In silver, there are coins called nummi, this word from the Sicilians: denarii, because they were worth deni aeris ‘ten asses of copper’; quinarii, because they were worth quini ‘five asses each’; and the sestertius ‘sesterce,’ so called because it is semis tertius ‘the third half-a.’ For the old-time sesterce was a dupondius and a semis; it is also a part of ancient practice, that they should speak of coin in reverse order, so that they named them the semis tertius ‘two and a half asses,’ semis quartus ‘the fourth half, three and a half asses ‘semis quintus’ the fifth half, four and a half asses. ‘From semis tertius they said sestertius. The tenth part of a nummus denarius ‘silver coin of ten asses’ is a libella,’ because the as was worth a pound by weight, and the as of silver was a small one. The simbella is so called because it is the half of a libella, as the semis is half of an as. The ierruncius ‘three-ounce piece,’ from tres unciae ‘three ounces,’ because as this is the fourth part of a libella, so the quadrans is the fourth of an as.

5.175 This same money changes its name: for it can likewise be called dos ‘dower,’ arrabo ‘earnest-money,’ merces ‘wages,’ corollarium ‘bonus.’ Dos ‘dower,’ if it is given for the purpose of a marriage; this in Greek is δωτίνη, for thus the Sicilians call it. From the same comes donum ‘gift’; for in Greek it is δόνειον with the Aeolians, and δόμα as others say it, and δόσιν of the Athenians. Arrabo ‘earnest-money,’ when money is given on this stipulation, that a balance is to be paid: this word likewise is from the Greek, where it is αρραβών. Reliquum ‘balance,’ because it is the reliquum ‘remainder’ of what is owed.

5.176 Damnum ‘loss,’ from demptio ‘taking away,’ when less is brought in by the sale of the object than it cost. Lucrum ‘profit’ from luere ‘to set free,’ if more is taken in than will exsolvere ‘release’ the price at which it was acquired. Detrimentum ‘damage,’ from detritus ‘rubbing off,’ because those things which are trita ‘rubbed’ are of less value. From the same trimentum comes intertrimentum ‘loss by attrition,’ because two things which have been trita ‘rubbed’ inter se ‘against each other’ are also diminished; from which moreover intertrigo ‘chafing of the skin’ is said.

5.177 A multa ‘fine’ is that money named by a magistrate, that it might be exacted on account of a transgression; because the fines are named one at a time, they are called multae as though ‘many,’ and because of old they called wine multa: thus when the countrymen put wine into a large jar or wine-skin, they even now call it a multa after the first pitcherful has been put in. Poena ‘penalty,’ from poenire ‘to punish’ or because it follows post ‘after’ a transgression. Pretium ‘price’ is that which is fixed for the purpose of purchase or of evaluation; it is named from the periti ‘experts,’ because these alone can set a price correctly.

5.178 If any payment is made for services or for labour, it is merces ‘wages,’ from merere ‘to earn.’ What was done by hand and what was paid for the work, were both called manupretium ‘workmanship’ and ‘workman’s pay,’ from manus ‘hands’ and pretium ‘price.’ Corollarium ‘bonus,’ if anything is added beyond what is due; this word was made from corollae ‘garlands,’ because the spectators were in the habit of throwing flowers on the stage when they liked the actors’ performance. Praeda ‘booty’ is that which has been taken from the enemy, because it is parta ‘won’ by the work of the hands: praeda as though parida. Praemium « ‘reward,’ from praeda ‘booty,’ because it is granted for something well done.

5.179 If money is given which is to be paid back, it is a mutuum ‘loan,’ so called because the Sicilians call it a μοίτος; thus Sophron writes
Loan to be repaid.
Also munus ‘present,’ because those who are on terms of mutuus ‘mutual’ affection give presents out of kindness; a second munus ‘duty,’ because it is ordered for the muniendum ‘fortification’ of the town, from which moreover the municipes ‘townspeople’ are named, who must jointly perform the munus.

5.180 If it is that money which comes into court in lawsuits, it is called sacramentum ‘sacred deposit,’ from sacrum ‘sacred’: the plaintiff and the defendant each deposited with the pontifex five hundred copper asses for some kinds of cases, and for other kinds the trial was conducted likewise under a deposit of some other fixed amount specified by law; he who won the decision got back his deposit from the temple, but the loser’s deposit passed into the state treasury.

5.181 ‘Tributum’ tribute ‘was said from the tribus’ tribes,’ because that money which was levied on the people, was exacted tributim ‘tribe by tribe’ individually, in proportion to their financial rating in the census. From this, that money which was allotted was attributum ‘assigned’; from this also, those to whom the money was assigned, that they may pay it to the soldiery, were called tribuni aerarii ‘treasury tribunes’; that which was assigned, was the aes militare ‘soldier’s pay-fund’; this is what Plautus means:
Comes the soldier, asks for cash.
And from this comes the term milites aerarii ‘paid soldiers,’ from the aes ‘cash-pay,’ because they earned stipends.

5.182 This very word stipendium ‘stipend’ is said from stips ‘coin,’ because they also called an aes ‘copper coin’ a stips; for because the asses were a pound each in weight, those who had received an unusual number of them did not put them in a strongbox, but stipabant ‘packed,’ that is, componebant ‘stored,’ them away in some chamber, that they might take up less space; they started the use of the word stips from stipare ‘to pack. ‘Stips is perhaps from the Greek word στοιβή ‘heap.’ This is clear, because, as was then started, so even now they speak of a stips when they give money to the temple treasuries for the gods, and those who make a contract about money are said to stipulari ‘stipulate’ and restipulari ‘make counter-stipulations.’ Therefore the soldier’s stipendia ‘stipends,’ because they pendebant ‘weighed’ the stips; from this moreover Ennius writes:
The Phoenicians pay out the stipends.

5.183 From the same pendere ‘to weigh or pay, comes dispensator ‘distributing cashier,’ and in our accounts we write expensum ‘expense’ and therefrom the first pensio ‘payment’ and likewise the second and any others, and dispendium ‘loss by distribution,’ for this reason, that money is wont to become less in the dispendendo ‘distributing of the payments’; compendium ‘saving,’ which is made when it compenditur ‘is weighed all together’; from which the tisura ‘interest,’ because it was added in ‘on’ the principal, was called impendium ‘outlay’; when it was not added to the principal, it was called usura ‘interest’ because of the usus ‘use’ of the money, just as sors ‘principal’ is said because it becomes one’s own by sors ‘union.’ It was once the custom to pay by the use of a pair of scales; a trace of this remains even now in the Temple of Saturn, because it even now has a pair of scales set up ready for weighing purposes.
From aes ‘copper money’ the Aerarium ‘Treasury’ was named.

5.184 XXXVII. What we have thought to pertain to names which are places and those which express things in places, has been, as I think, adequately set forth, because a great many are perspicuous and if we should wish to write further the roll will not permit it. Therefore in the next book, as I said at the beginning of this book, I shall speak of the next topic, namely about times.

BOOK V ENDS,

6.1 I. HERE BEGINS BOOK VI

The sources of the words which are names of places and are names of those things which are in these places, I have written in the preceding book.
In the present book I shall speak about the names of times and of those things which in the performance take place or are said with some time-factor, such as sitting, walking, talking: and if there are any words of a different sort attached to these, I shall give heed rather to the kinship of the words than to the rebukes of my listener.

6.2 In this subject I rely on Chrysippus as an adequate authority, and on Antipater, and on those in whom there was more learning even if not so much insight, among them Aristophanes and Apollodorus: all these write that words are so derived from words, that the words in some instances take on letters, in others lose them, in still others change them, as in the case of turdus ‘thrush’ takes place in turdarium ‘thrush-cote’ and turdelix ‘spiral entrance for thrushes.’ Thus the Greeks, in adapting our names, make Λουκιανος of Lucienus and Κουίντιος of Quintius,and we make Aristarchus of their Αρισταρχος and Dio of their Διον. In just this way, I say, our practice has altered many from the old form, as solum ‘soil’ from solu. Liber urn ‘God of Wine’ from Loebesom, Lares ‘Hearth-Gods’ from Lases: these words, covered up as they are by lapse of time, I shall try to dig out as best I can.

6.3 II. First we shall speak of the time-names, then of those things which take place through them, but in such a way that first we shall speak of their essential nature: for nature was man’s guide to the imposition of names. Time, they say, is an interval in the motion of the world. This is divided into a number of parts, especially from the course of the sun and the moon. Therefore from their temperatus ‘moderated’ career, tempus ‘time’ is named, and from this comes tempestiva ‘timely things’; and from their motus ‘motion,’ the mundus ‘world,’ which is joined with the sky as a whole.

6.4 There are two motions of the sun: one with the sky, in that the moving is impelled by Jupiter as ruler, who in Greek is called Δια, when it comes from east to west; wherefore this time is from this god called a dies ‘day.’ Meridies ‘noon,’ from the fact that it is the medius ‘middle’ of the dies ‘day.’ The ancients said D in this word, and not R, as I have seen at Praeneste, cut on a sun-dial. Solarium ‘sun-dial’ was the name used for that on which the hours were seen in the sol ‘sunlight’; or also there is the water-clock, which Cornelius set up in the shade in the Basilica of Aemilius and Fulvius. The beginning of the day is mane ‘early morning,’ because then the day manat ‘trickles’ from the east, unless rather because the ancients called the good manum: from a superstitious belief of the same kind as influences the Greeks, who, when a light is brought, make a practice of saying, Goodly light!

6.5 Suprema means the last part of the day; it is from superrimum. This time, the Twelve Tables say, is sunset; but afterwards the Plaetorian Law declares that this time also should be ‘last’ at which the praetor in the Comitium has announced to the people the suprema ‘end of the session.’ In line with this, crepusculum ‘dusk’ is said from creperum ‘obscure’; this word they took from the Sabines, from whom come those who were named Crepusci, from Amiternum, who had been born at that time of day, just like the Lucii, who were those born at dawn (prima luce) in the Reatine country. Crepusculum means doubtful: from this doubtful matters are called creperae ‘obscure,’ because dusk is a time when to many it is doubtful whether it is even yet day or is already night.

6.6 Nox ‘night’ is called nox, because, as Pacuvius says,
All will be stiff with frost unless the sun break in, because it nocet ‘harms’; unless it is because in Greek night is νυξ. When the first star has come out (the Greeks call it Hesperus, and our people call it Vesperugo, as Plautus does:
The evening star sets not, nor yet the Pleiades), this time is by the Greeks called εσπερα, and vesper ‘evening’ in Latin; just as, because the same star before sunrise is called iubar ‘dawn-star,’ because it is iubata ‘maned,’ Pacuvius’s herdsman says:
When morning-star appears and night has run her course.
And Ennius’s Ajax says:
I see light in the sky — can it be dawn?

6.7 The time between dusk and dawn is called the nox intempesta ‘dead of night,’ as in the Brutus of Cassius, in the speech of Lucretia:
By dead of night he came imto our home.
Aelius used to say that intempesta means the period when it is not a time for activity, which others have called the concubium ‘general rest,’ because practically all persons then cubabani were lying down’; others, from the fact that silebatur ‘silence was observed,’ have called it the silentium ‘still’ of the night, the time which Plautus likewise calls the conticinium ‘general silence’: for he writes:
We’ll see, I want it done. At general-silence time come back.

6.8 There is a second motion of the sun, differing from that of the sky, in that the motion is from bruma ‘winter’s day’ to solstitium ‘solstice.’ Bruma is so named, because then the day is brevissimus ‘shortest’: the solstitium, because on that day the sol ‘sun’ seems sistere ‘to halt,’ on which it is nearest to us. When the sun has arrived midway between the bruma and the solstitium, it is called the aequinoctium ‘equinox,’ because the day becomes aequus ‘equal’ to the nox ‘night.’ The time from the bruma until the sun returns to the bruma, is called an annus ‘year,’ because just as little circles are anuli ‘rings,’ so big circuits were called ani, whence comes annus ‘year.’

6.9 The first part of this time is the hiems ‘winter,’ so called because then there are many imbres ‘showers’; hence hibernacula ‘winter encampment,’ hibernum ‘winter time’; or because then everybody’s breath which is breathed out is visible, hiems is from hiatus ‘open mouth.’ The second season is the ver ‘spring,’ so called because then the virgulta ‘bushes’ begin virere ‘to become green’ and the time of year begins vertere ‘to turn or change’ itself; unless it is because the Ionians say ηρ for spring. The third season is the aestas ‘summer,’ from aestus ‘heat’; from this, aestivum ‘summer pasture’; unless perhaps it is from the Greek αιθεσθαι ‘to blaze.’ The fourth is the autumnus ‘autumn,’ named from augere ‘to increase’ the possessions of men and the gathered fruits, as if auctumnus.

6.10 As the year is named from the motion of the sun, so the month is named from the motion of the moon, until after departing from the sun she returns again to him. Because the moon was in Greek formerly called μηνη, whence their μηνες ‘months’ — from this word we named the menses ‘months.’
From menses is named the intermestris ‘day between the months,’ because they thought that between the last day of the preceding expiring month and the new moon there was a day, which with more care the Athenians called the ‘old and new,’ because on that day the very last of the old moon and the first beginnings of the new moon can both be seen.

6.11 A five-year period was called a lustrum, from luere ‘to set free,’ that is, solvere ‘to release,’ because in every fifth year the taxes and the voluntary tribute payments were completely discharged, through the activity of the censors. A seclum ‘century’ was what they called the space of one hundred years, named from senex ‘old man,’ because they thought this the longest stretch of life for senescendi ‘aging’ men. Aevum ‘eternity,’ from an aetas ‘period’ of all the years (from this comes aeviternum, which has become aeternum ‘eternal’): which the Greeks call an αιων — Chrysippus says that this is αει ον ‘always existing.’ From this Plautus says:
All time is not enough for thorough learning, and from this the poets say:
The everlasting temples of the sky.

6.12 III. To the division made by nature there have been added the civic names for the days. First I shall give those which have been instituted for the sake of the gods, then those instituted for the sake of men. The dies Agonales ‘days of the Agonia,’ on which the high-priest sacrifices a ram in the Regia, were named from agon for this reason, because the helper at the sacrifice asks agone? ‘Shall I do my work?; unless it is from the Greek, where αγων means princeps ‘leader,’ from the fact that the sacrificing is done by a leader of the state and the leader of the flock is sacrificed. The Carmentalia are so named because at that time there are sacrifices and a festival of Carmentis.

6.13 The Lupercalia was so named because the Luperci make sacrifice in the Lupercal. When the High-priest announces the monthly festivals on the Nones of February, he calls the day of the Lupercalia februatus: for februm is the name which the Sabines give to a purification, and this word is not unknown in our sacrifices; for a goat hide, with a thong of which the young women are flogged at the Lupercalia, the ancients called a februs, and the Lupercalia was called also Februatio ‘Festival of Purification,’ as I have shown in the Books of the Antiquities. Quirinalia ‘Festival of Quirinus,’ from Quirinus, because it is a festival to that god and also of those men who did not get a holiday on their own Furnacalia ‘Bakers’ Festival.’ The Feralia ‘Festival of the Dead,’ from inferi ‘the dead below’ and ferre ‘to bear,’ because at that time they ferunt ‘bear’ viands to the tomb of those to whom it is a duty to offer ancestor-worship there. The Terminalia ‘Festival of Terminus,’ because this day is set as the last day of the year; for the twelfth month was February, and when the extra month is inserted the last five days are taken off the twelfth month. The Ecurria ‘Horse-Race,’ from the equorum cursus ‘running of horses’; for on that day they currunt ‘run’ races in the sports on the Campus Martius.

6.14 The Liberalia ‘Festival of Liber,’ because on that day old women wearing ivy-wreaths on their heads sit in all parts of the town, as priestesses of Liber, with cakes and a brazier, on which they offer up the cakes on behalf of any purchaser. In the books of the Salii who have the added name Agonenses, this day is for this reason, perhaps, called rather the Agonia. The Quinquatrus: this day, though one only, is from a misunderstanding of the name observed as if there were five days in it. Just as the sixth day after the Ides is in similar fashion called the Sexatrus by the people of Tusculum, and the seventh day after is the Septimatrus, so this day was named here, in that the fifth day after the Ides was the Quinquatrus. The Tubilustrium ‘Purification of the Trumpets’ is named from the fact that on this day the tubae ‘trumpets’ used in the ceremonies lustrantur ‘are purified’ in Shoemakers’ Hall (atrium sutorium).

6.15 The Megalesia ‘Festival of the Great Mother’ is so called from the Greeks, because by direction of the Sibylline Books the Great Mother was brought from King Attalus at Pergama; there near the city-wall was the Megalesion, that is, the temple of this goddess, whence she was brought to Rome. The Fordicidia was named from fordae cows: a forda cow is one that is carrying an unborn calf; because on this day several pregnant cows are officially and publicly sacrificed in the curiae, the festival was called the Fordicidia from fordae caedendae ‘the pregnant (cows) which were to be slaughtered.’ The Palilia ‘Festival of Pales’ was named from Pales, because it is a holiday in her honour, like the Cerialia, named from Ceres.

6.16 The Vinalia ‘Festival of the Wine,’ from vinum ‘wine’; this is a day sacred to Jupiter, not to Venus. This feast receives no slight attention in Latium: for in some places the vintages were started by the priests, on behalf of the state, as at Rome they are even now: for the special priest of Jupiter makes an official commencement of the vintage, and when he has given orders to gather the grapes, he sacrifices a lamb to Jupiter, and between the cutting out of the victim’s vitals and the offering of them to the god he himself first plucks a bunch of grapes. On the gates of Tusculum there is the inscription:
The new wine shall not be carried into the city until the Vinalia has been proclaimed.
The Robigalia ‘Festival of Robigus’ was named from Robigus ‘God of Rust’; to this god sacrifice is made along the cornfields, that rust may not seize upon the standing corn.

6.17 The Vestalia ‘Festival of Vesta,’ like the Vestal Virgins, from Vesta. The Ides of June are called the Lesser Quinquatrus, from the likeness to the Greater Quinquatrus, because the pipes-players take a holiday, and after roaming through the City, assemble at the Temple of Minerva. The day of Fors Fortuna ‘Chance Luck’ was named by King Servius Tullius, because he dedicated a sanctuary to Fors Fortuna beside the Tiber, outside the city Rome, in the month of June.

6.18 The Poplifugia ‘People’s Flight ‘seems to have been named from the fact that on this day the people suddenly fled in noisy confusion: for this day is not much after the departure of the Gauls from the City, and the peoples who were then near the City, such as the Ficuleans and Fidenians and other neighbours, united against us. Several traces of this day’s flight appear in the sacrifices, of which the Books of the Antiquities give more information. The Nones of July are called the Caprotine Nones, because on this day, in Latium, the women offer sacrifice to Juno Caprotina, which they do under a caprificus ‘wild fig-tree’; they use a branch from the fig-tree. Why this was done, the bordered toga presented to them at the Games of Apollo enlightened the people.

6.19 The Neptunalia ‘Festival of Neptune,’ from Neptune; for it is the holiday of this god. The Furrinalia ‘Festival of Furrina,’ from Furrina, for this day is a state holiday for this goddess; honour was paid to her among the ancients, who instituted an annual sacrifice for her, and assigned to her a special priest, but now her name is barely known, and even that to only a few. The Portunalia ‘Festival of Portunus’ was named from Portunus, to whom, on this day, a temple was built at the portus ‘port’ on the Tiber, and a holiday instituted.

6.20 The nineteenth of August was called the Country Vinalia ‘Wine-Festival,’ because at that time a temple was dedicated to Venus and gardens were set apart for her, and then the kitchen-gardeners went on holiday. The Consualia ‘Festival of Census’ was called from Census, because then there was the state festival to that god, and in the Circus at his altar those games were enacted by the priests in which the Sabine maidens were carried off. The Volcanalia ‘Festival of Vulcan,’ from Vulcan, because then was his festival and because on that day the people, acting for themselves, drive their animals over a fire.

6.21 The day named Opeconsiva is called from Ops Consiva ‘Lady Bountiful the Planter,’ whose shrine is in the Regia; it is so restricted in size that no one may enter it except the Vestal Virgins and the state priest. When he goes there, let him wear a white veil, is the direction; this suffibulum ‘white veil’ is named as if sub-figabulum from suffigere ‘to fasten down.’ The Volturnalia ‘Festival of Volturnus,’ from the god Volturnus,’ whose feast takes place then.
In the month of October, the Meditrinalia ‘Festival of Meditrina’ was named from mederi ‘to be healed,’ because Flaccus the special priest of Mars used to say that on this day it was the practice to pour an offering of new and old wine to the god, and to taste of the same, for the purpose of being healed; which many are accustomed to do even now, when they say;
Wine new and old I drink, of illness new and old I’m cured.’

6.22 The Fontanalia ‘Festival of the Springs,’ from Fons ‘God of Springs,’ because that day is his holiday; on his account they then throw garlands into the springs and place them on the well- tops. The Armilustrium ‘Purification of the Arms,’ from the fact that armed men perform the ceremony in the Armilustrium, unless the place is rather named from the men; but as I said of them previously, this word comes from ludere ‘to play’ or from lustrum ‘purification,’ that is, because armed men went around ludentes ‘making sport’ with the sacred shields.
The Saturnalia ‘Festival of Saturn’ was named from Saturn, because on this day was his festival, as on the second day thereafter the Opalia, the festival of Ops.

6.23 The Angeronalia, from Angerona, to whom a sacrifice is made in the Acculeian Curia and of whom this day is a state festival. The Larentine Festival, which certain writers call the Larentalia, was named from Acca Larentia, to whom our priests officially perform ancestor-worship on the sixth day after the Saturnalia, which day is from her called the Day of the Parentalia of Larentine Acca.

6.24 This sacrifice is made in the Velabrum, where it ends in New Street, as certain authorities say, at the tomb of Acca, because near there the priests make offering to the departed spirits of the slaves: both these places were outside the ancient city, not far from the Little Roman Gate, of which I spoke in the preceding book. Septimontium Day was named from these septem montes ‘seven hills,’ on which the City is set; it is a holiday not of the people generally, but only of those who live on the hills, as only those who are of some pagus ‘country-district’ have a holiday’ at the Paganalia ‘Festival of the Country Districts.’

6.25 The fixed days are those of which I have spoken; now I shall speak of the annual festivals which are not fixed on a special day. The Compitalia is a day assigned to the Lares of the highways; therefore where the highways competunt ‘meet, sacrifice is then made at the compita ‘crossroads.’ This day is appointed every year. Likewise the Latinae Feriae ‘Latin Holiday’ is an appointed day, named from the peoples of Latium, who had equal right with the Romans to get a share of the meat at the sacrifices on the Alban Mount: from these Latin peoples it was called the Latin Holiday.

6.26 The Sementivae Feriae ‘Seed-time Holiday’ is that day which is set by the pontiffs; it was named from the sementis ‘seeding,’ because it is entered upon for the sake of the sowing. The Paganicae ‘Country-District Holiday’ was entered upon for the sake of this same agriculture, that the whole pagus ‘country-district’ might hold it in the fields, whence it was called Paganicae. There are also appointive holidays which are not annual, such as those which are set without a special name of their own, or with an obvious one, such as is the Novendialis ‘Ceremony of the Ninth Day.’

6.27 IV. About these days this is enough; now let us see to the days which are instituted for the interests of men. The first days of the months are named the Kalendae, because on these days the Nones of this month calantur ‘are announced’ by the pontiffs on the Capitoline in Announcement Hall, whether they will be on the fifth or on the seventh, in this way: Juno Covella, I announce thee on the fifth day or Juno Covella, I announce thee on the seventh day.

6.28 The Nones are so called either because they are always the nonus ‘ninth’ day before the Ides, or because the Nones are called the novus ‘new’ month from the new moon, just as the Kalends of January are called the new year from the new sun; on the same day the people who were in the fields used to flock into the City to the King. Traces of this status are seen in the ceremonies held on the Nones, on the Citadel, because at that time the high-priest announces to the people the first monthly holidays which are to take place in that month. The Idus ‘Ides,’ from the fact that the Etruscans called them the Itus, or rather because the Sabines call them the Idus.

6.29 The days next after the Kalends, the Nones, and the Ides, were called atri ‘black,’ because on these days they might not start anything new. Dies fasti ‘righteous days, court days,’ on which the praetors are permitted fari ‘to say’ any and all words without sin. Comitiales ‘assembly days’ are so called because then it is the established law that the people should be in the Comitium to cast their votes — unless some holidays should have been proclaimed on account of which this is not permissible, such as the Compitalia and the Latin Holiday.

6.30 The opposite of these are called dies nefasti ‘unrighteous days,’ on which it is nefas ‘unrighteousness’ for the praetor to say do ‘I give,’ dico ‘I pronounce,’ addico ‘I assign’; therefore no action can be taken, for it is necessary to use some one of these words, when anything is settled in due legal form. But if at that time he has inadvertently uttered such a word and set somebody free, the person is none the less free, but with a bad omen in the proceeding, just as a magistrate elected in spite of an unfavourable omen is a magistrate just the same. The praetor who has made a legal decision at such a time, is freed of his sin by the sacrifice of an atonement victim, if he did it unintentionally; but if he made the pronouncement with a realization of what he was doing, Quintus Mucius said that he could not in any way atone for his sin, as one who had failed in his duty to God and country.

6.31 The intercisi dies ‘divided days’ are those on which legal business is wrong in the morning and in the evening, but right in the time between the slaying of the sacrificial victim and the offering of the vital organs; whence they are intercisi because the fas ‘right’ intercedit ‘comes in between’ at that time, or because the nefas ‘wrong’ is intercisum ‘cut into’ by the fas. The day which is called thus: When the high-priest has officiated in the Comitium, Right, is named from the fact that on this day the high-priest pronounces the proper formulas for the sacrifice in the presence of the assembly, up to which time legal business is wrong, and from that time on it is right: therefore after this time of day actions are often taken under the law.

6.32 The day which is called “When the dung has been carried out, Right,” is named from this, that on this day the dung is swept out of the Temple of Vesta and is carried away along the Capitoline Incline to a certain spot. The Dies Alliensis ‘Day of the Allia’ is called from the Allia River; for there our army was put to flight by the Gauls just before they besieged Rome.

6.33 With this I have finished my account of what pertains to the names of individual days. The names of the months are in general obvious, if you count from March, as the ancients arranged them; for the first month, Martius, is from Mars. The second, Aprilis, as Fulvius writes and Junius also, is from Venus, because she is Aphrodite: but I have nowhere found her name in the old writings about the month, and so think that it was called April rather because spring aperit ‘opens’ everything. The third was called Maius ‘May’ from the maiores ‘elders,’ the fourth Iunius ‘June’ from the iuniores ‘younger men.’

6.34 Thence the fifth is Quintilis ‘July’ and so in succession to December, named from the numeral.
Of those which were added to these, the prior was called Ianuarius ‘January’ from the god who is first in order; the latter, as the same writers say, was called Februarius ‘February’ from the di inferi ‘gods of the Lower World,’ because at that time expiatory sacrifices are made to them; but I think that it was called February rather from the dies februatus ‘Purification Day,’ because then the people februatur ‘is purified,’ that is, the old Palatine town girt with flocks of people is passed around by the naked Luperci.

6.35 V. As to what pertains to Latin names of time ideas, let that which has been said up to this point be enough. Now I shall speak of what concerns those things which might be observed as taking place at some special time — such as the following: legisti ‘thou didst read,’ cursus ‘act of running,’ ludens ‘playing.’ With regard to these there are two things which I wish to say in advance: how great their number is, and what features are less perspicuous than others.

6.36 The inflections of words are of four kinds: one which indicates the time and does not have case, as leges ‘thou wilt gather or read,’ lege ‘read thou,’ from lego ‘I gather or read’; a second, which has case and does not indicate time, as from lego lectio ‘collection, act of reading,’ lector ‘reader’; the third, which has both, time and case, as from lego legens ‘reading,’ lecturus ‘being about to read’; the third, which has neither, as from lego lecte ‘choicely,’ lectissime ‘most choicely.’ Therefore if the primitives of these words amount to one thousand, as Cosconius writes, then from the inflections of these words the different forms can be five hundred thousand in number for the reason that from each and every primitive word about five hundred forms are made by derivation and inflection.

6.37 Primitive is the name applied to words like lego ‘I gather,’ scribo ‘I write,’ sto ‘I stand,’ sedeo ‘I sit,’ and the rest which are not from some other word, but have their own roots. On the other hand derivative words are those which do develop from some other word, as from lego come legis ‘thou gatherest,’legit ‘he gathers,’legam ‘I shall gather,’and in this fashion from this same word come a great number of words.
Therefore, if one has shown the origins of the primitive words, and if these are one thousand in number, he will have revealed at the same time the sources of five hundred thousand separate words: but if without showing the origin of a single primitive word he has shown how the rest have developed from the primitives, he will have said quite enough about the origins of words, since the original elements from which the words are sprung are few and the words which have sprung from them are countless.

6.38 There are besides an enormous number of words derived from these same original elements by the addition of a few prefixes, because by the addition of prefixes with or without change a word is repeatedly transformed; for as there is processit ‘he marched forward’ and recessit ‘drew back,’ so there is accessit ‘approached’ and abscessit ‘went off,’ likewise incessit ‘advanced’ and excessit ‘withdrew,’ so also successit ‘went up’ and decessit’ went away,’ discessit ‘departed’ and concessit ‘gave way.’ But if there were only these ten prefixes, from the thousand primitives five million different forms can be made inasmuch as from one word there are five hundred derivational forms and when these are multiplied by ten through union with a prefix five thousand different forms are produced out of one primitive.

6.39 Democritus, Epicurus, and likewise others who have pronounced the original elements to be unhmited in number, though they do not tell us whence the elements are, but only of what sort they are, still perform a great service: they show us the things which in the world consist of these elements.
Therefore if the etymologist should postulate one thousand original elements of words, about which an interpretation is not to be asked of him, and show the nature of the rest, about which he does not make the postulation,’ the number of words which he would explain would still be enormous.

6.40 Since I have given a sufficient reminder of the number of existing words, I shall speak briefly about their obscurity. Of the words which also indicate time the most difficult feature is their radicals, for the reason that these have in general no communion with the Greek language, and those to whose birth our memory reaches are not native Latin; yet of these, as I have said, we shall say what we can.

6.41 VI. I shall start first from the word ago ‘I drive, effect, do.’ Actio ‘action’ is made from agitatus ‘motion.’ From this we say The tragic actor agit ‘makes’ a gesture, and The chariot-team agitantur ‘is driven’; from this, The flock agitur ‘is driven’ to pasture. Where it is hardly possible for anything agi ‘to be driven,’ from this it is called an angiportum ‘alley’; where nothing can agi ‘be driven,’ from this it is an angulus ‘corner,’ or else because in it is a very narrow (angustus) place to which this corner belongs.

6.42 There are three actiones ‘actions,’ and of these the first is the agitatus ‘motion’ of the mind, because we must first cogitate ‘consider’ those things which we are acturi ‘going to do,’ and then thereafter say them and do them. Of these three, the common folk practically never thinlcs that cogitatio ‘consideration’ is an action: but it thinks that the third, in which we do something, is the most important. But also when we cogitamus ‘consider’ something and agitamus ‘turn it over’ in mind, we agimus ‘are acting,’ and when we make an utterance, we agimus ‘are acting.’
Therefore from this the orator is said agere ‘to plead’ the case, and the augurs are said agere ‘to practice’ augury, although in it there is more saying than doing.

6.43 Cogitare ‘to consider’ is said from cogere ‘to bring together’: the mind cogit ‘brings together’ several things into one place, from which it can choose. Thus from milk that is coactum ‘pressed,’ caseus ‘cheese’ was named; thus from men brought together was the contio ‘mass meeting’ called, thus coemptio ‘marriage by mutual sale,’ thus compitum ‘cross-roads.’ From cogitatio ‘consideration’ came concilium ‘council,’ and from that came consilium ‘counsel’; and the concilium is said conciliari ‘to be brought into unity’ like a garment when it cogitur ‘is pressed’ at the cleaner’s.

6.44 Thus reminisci ‘to recall,’ when those things which have been held by mind and memory are fetched back again by considering (cogitando). From this also comminisci ‘to fabricate a story’ is said, from con ‘together’ and mens ‘mind,’ when things which are not, are devised in the mind; and from that comes the word eminisci ‘to use the imagination,’ when the commentum ‘fabrication’ is uttered. From the same word mens ‘mind’ come menunisse ‘to remember’ and amens ‘mad,’ said of one who has departed a mente ‘from his mind.’

6.45 From this moreover metus ‘fear,’ from the mens ‘mind’ somehow mota ‘moved,’ as meiuisti ‘you feared,’ equal to te amovisti ‘you removed yourself.’
So, because timor ‘fear’ is cold, tremuisti ‘you shivered’ is equal to timuisti ‘you feared.’ Tremo ‘I shiver’ is said from the similarity to the behaviour of the voice, which is evident then when people shiver very much, when even the hairs on the body bristle up like the beard on an ear of barley.

6.46 Curare ‘to care for, look after ‘is said from cura’ care, attention. ‘Cura, because it cor urat ‘burns the heart’; curiosus ‘inquisitive,’ because such a person indulges in cura beyond the proper measure.
Recordari ‘to recall to mind,’ is revocare ‘to call back’ again into the cor ‘heart.’ The curiae ‘halls,’ where the senate curat ‘looks after’ the interests of the state, and also there where there is the cura ‘care’ of the state sacrifices; from these, the curiones ‘priests of the curiae.’

6.47 Folo ‘I wish’ is said from voluntas ‘free-will’ and from volatus ‘flight,’ because the spirit is such that in an instant it pervolat ‘flies through’ to any place whither it volt ‘wishes.’ Lubere ‘to be pleasing’ is said from labi’ to slip,’ because the mind is lubrica ‘slippery’ and prolabitur ‘slips forward,’ as of old they used to say. From lubere ‘to be pleasing’ come libido ‘lust,’ libidinosus ‘lustful,’ and Venus Libentina ‘goddess of sensual pleasure’ and Libitina ‘goddess of the funeral equipment,’ so also other words.

6.48 Metuere ‘to fear,’ from a certain motus ’emotion’ of the spirit, when the mind shrinks back from that misfortune which it thinks will fall upon it.
When from excessive violence of the emotion it is borne foras ‘forth’ so as to go out of itself, there is formido ‘terror’; when parum movetur ‘the emotion is not very strong,’ it pavet ‘dreads,’ and from this comes pavor ‘dread.’

6.49 Meminisse ‘to remember,’ from memoria ‘memory,’ when there is again a motion toward that which remansit ‘has remained’ in the mens ‘mind’: and this may have been said from manere ‘to remain,’ as though manimoria. Therefore the Salii, when they sing O Mamurius Veturius, indicate a memoria vetus ‘memory of olden times.’
From the same is monere ‘to remind,’ because he who monet ‘reminds,’ is just like a memory. So also the monimenta ‘memorials’ which are on tombs, and in fact alongside the highway, that they may ad monere ‘admonish’ the passers-by that they themselves were mortal and that the readers are too. From this, the other things that are written and done to preserve their memoria ‘memory’ are called monimenta ‘monuments.’

6.50 Maerere ‘to grieve,’ was named from marcere ‘to wither away,’ because the body too would marcescere ‘waste away’; from this moreover the macri ‘lean’ were named. Laetari ‘to be happy,’ from this, that joy is spread latius ‘more widely’ because of the idea that it is a great blessing. Therefore Juventius says:
Should all men bring their joys into a single spot.
My happiness would yet surpass the total lot.
When things are of this nature, they are said to be laeta ‘happy.’

6.51 VII. Narro ‘I narrate,’ when I make a second person narus ‘acquainted vnth’ something; from which comes narratio ‘narration,’ by which we make acquaintance with an occurrence. This part of acting is in the section of saying, and the words are united with time-ideas or are from them: those of this sort seem to be radicals.

6.52 That manfatur ‘speaks’ who first emits from his mouth an utterance which may convey a meaning.
From this, before they can do so, children are called infantes ‘non-speakers, infants’; when they do this, they are said now fari ‘to speak’; not only this word, but also, from likeness to the utterance of a child, fariolus ‘soothsayer’ and fatuus ‘prophetic speaker’ are said. From the fact that the Birth-Goddesses by fando ‘speaking’ then set the life-periods for the children, fatum ‘fate’ is named, and the things that are fatales ‘fateful.’ From this same word, those who fantur ‘speak’ easily are called facundi ‘eloquent,’ and those who are accustomed fari ‘to speak’ the future through presentiment, are called fatidici ‘sayers of the fates’; they likewise are said vaticinari ‘to prophesy,’ because they do this with frenzied mind: but this will have to be taken up later, when we speak about the poets.

6.53 From this the dies fasti ‘righteous days, court days,’ on which the praetors are permitted fari ‘to speak’ without sin certain words of legal force; from this the nefasti ‘unrighteous days,’ on which it is not right for them to speak them, and if they have spoken these words, they must make atonement.
From this those words are called effata ‘pronounced,’ by which the augurs have effati ‘pronounced’ the limit that the fields outside the city are to have, for the observance of signs in the sky; from this, the areas of observation are said effari ‘to be pronounced’; by the augurs, the boundaries effantur ‘are pronounced’ which are attached to them.

6.54 From this the fana ‘sanctuaries’ are named, because the pontiffs in consecrating them have fati ‘spoken’ their boundary; from this, profanum ‘being before the sanctuary,’ which applies to something that is in front of the sanctuary and joined to it; from this, anything in the sacrifice, and especially Hercules’s tithe, is called profanatum ‘brought before the sanctuary, dedicated,’ from this fact that it fanatur ‘is consecrated’ by some sacrifice, that is, that it becomes by law the property of the sanctuary. This is called polluctum ‘offered up,’ a term which is shaped from porricere ‘to lay before’: for when from articles of commerce first fruits are laid before Hercules, on his altar, then there is a polluctum ‘offering-up,’ just as, when profanatum is said, it is as if the thing had become the sanctuary’s property. So formerly all that was profanatum ‘dedicated’ used to be consumed in the sanctuary, as even now is done with that which the City Praetor offers every year, when on behalf of the state he sacrifices a heifer to Hercules.

6.55 From the same word fari ‘to speak,’ the fabulae ‘plays,’ such as tragedies and comedies, were named. From this word, those persons have fassi ‘admitted’ and confessi ‘confessed,’ who have fati ‘spoken’ that which was asked of them. From this, professi ‘openly declared’: from this, fama ‘talk, rumour,’ and famosi ‘much talked of, notorious.’
From the same, falli ‘to be deceived,’ but also falsum ‘false’ and fallacia ‘deceit,’ which are so named on this account, that hy fando ‘speaking’ one misleads someone and then does the opposite of what he has said. Therefore if one fallit ‘deceives’ by an act, in this there is not fallada ‘deceit’ in its own proper meaning, but in a transferred sense, as from our pes ‘foot’ the pes ‘foot’ of a bed and of a beet are spoken of. From this, moreox ex , famigerabile ‘worth being talked about,’ and in this fashion other compounded words, just as there are many derived words, among which are Fatuus ‘god of prophetic speaking’ and the Fatuae ‘women of prophecy.’

6.56 Loqui ‘to talk,’ is said from locus ‘place.’
Because he who is said to speak now for the first time, utters the names and other words before he can say them each in its own locus ‘place,’ such a person Chrysippus says does not loqui talk,’ but quasitalks; and that therefore, as a man’s sculptured bust is not the real man, so in the case of ravens, crows,’ and boys making their first attempts to speak, their words are not real words, because they are not talking. Therefore he loquitur ‘talks,’ who with understanding puts each word in its own place, and he has then prolocutus ‘spoken forth,’ when he has by loquendo ‘talking’ expressed what he had in his spirit.

6.57 From this, they are said eloqui ‘to speak forth’ and reloqui ‘to speak in reply in the Sabine sanctuaries, who loquuntur ‘speak’ from the chamber of the God. From this he was called loquax ‘talkative,’ who talked too much: from this, eloquens ‘eloquent,’ who talks profusely; from this, colloquium ‘conference,’ when persons come into one place for the purpose of talking; from this, they say that women go adlocutum ‘to talk to her,’ when they go to someone, to talk for purposes of consolation; from this, a word which we utter in talking has been by some called a loquela ‘talk-unit.’ To talk concinne ‘neatly’ is said from concinere ‘to harmonize,’ where the parts agree with each other in such a way that they mutually concinunt ‘harmonize’ one mth another.

6.58 Pronuntiare ‘to make known publicly’ is said from pro and nuntiare ‘to announce’; pro means the same as ante ‘before,’ as in proludit ‘he plays beforehand.’ Therefore actors are said pronuntiare ‘to declaim,’ because they enuntiant ‘make known’ on the proscaenium ‘stage’ the poet’s thoughts; and the word is used with the most literal meaning, when they act a new play. For a nuntius ‘messenger’ was named from novae res ‘new things,’ which is perhaps derived from a Greek word; from this, accordingly, their Neapolis ‘New City’ was called Nova-polis ‘New-polis’ by the old-time Romans.

6.59 From this, moreover, novissimum ‘newest’ also began to be used popularly for extremum ‘last,’ a use which within my memory both Aelius and some elderly men avoided, on the ground that the proper form of the superlative of this word was nimium novum; its origin is just like vetustius ‘older’ and veterrimum ‘oldest’ from vetus ‘old,’ thus from novum were derived novius ‘newer’ and novissimum, which means ‘last.’
So, from the same origin, novitas ‘newness’ and nocicius ‘novice’ and novalis ‘ploughed anew’ in the case of a field, and a part of the buildings in the Forum was called sub Novis ‘by the New Shops’; though it has had the name for a very long time, as has the Nova Via New Street,’ which has been an old street this long while,

6.60 From this can be said also nominare ‘to call by name,’ because when novae ‘new’ things were brought into use, they set nomina ‘names’ on them, by which they novissent ‘might know’ them. From this, nuncupare ‘to pronounce vows publicly,’ because then nova ‘new’ vows are undertaken for the state.
That nuncupare is the same as nominare, is evident in the laws, where sums of money are written down as nuncupatae ‘bequeathed by name’; likewise in the Chorus, in which there is:
Aeneas ! — Who is this who calls me by my name?
And likewise in the Medus:
Who are you, woman, who have called me by an unaccustomed name?

6.61 Dico ‘I say’ has a Greek origin, that which the Greeks call δεικνυμι ‘I show.’ From this moreover comes dicare ‘to show, dedicate,’ as Ennius says:
I say this circus shows six little turning-posts.
From this, iudicare ‘to judge,’ because then ius ‘right’ dicitur ‘is spoken’; from this, index ‘judge,’ because he ius dicat ‘speaks the decision’ after receiving the power to do so; from this, dedicat ‘he dedicates,’ that is, he finishes the matter by dicendo ‘saying’ certain fixed words: for thus a temple of a god dedicatur ‘is dedicated’ by the magistrate, by dicendo ‘saying’ the formulas after the pontiff. From this, that is from dicere, comes indicium ‘information’; from this, the following: indicit ‘he declares’ war, indixit ‘he has invited to’ a funeral, prodixit ‘he has postponed’ the day, addixit ‘he has awarded’ the decision; from this was named a dictum ‘bon mot’ in a farce, and dictiosus ‘witty person’; from this, in the companies of soldiers in camp, the dicta ‘orders’ of the leaders; from this, the dictata ‘dictation exercises’ in the school; from this, the dictator ‘dictator,’ as master of the people, because he must did ‘be appointed’ by the consul; from this, those old phrases addici nummo ‘to be made over to somebody for a shilling,’ ‘and dicis causa’ for the sake of judicial form,’ and addictus ‘bound over’ to somebody.

6.62 If I dico ‘say’ something that I know to one who does not know it, because I trado ‘hand over’ to him what he was ignorant of, from this is derived doceo ‘I teach,’ or else because when we docemus ‘teach’ we dicimus ‘say,’ or eke because those who docentur ‘are taught’ inducuntur’ are led on ‘to that which they docentur’ are taught.’ From this fact, that he knows how ducere ‘to lead,’ is named the one who is dux ‘guide’ or ductor ‘leader’; from this, doctor ‘teacher,’ who so inducit ‘leads on’ that he docet ‘teaches.’ From ducere ‘to lead,’ come docere ‘to teach,’ disciplina ‘instruction,’ discere ‘to learn,’ by the change of a few letters. From the same original element comes documenta ‘instructive examples,’ which are said as models for the purpose of teaching.

6.63 Disputatio ‘discussion’ and computatio ‘reckoning,’ from the general idea oi put are, which means to make purum ‘clean’; for the ancients used putum to mean purum. Therefore putator ‘trimmer’, because he makes trees clean; therefore a business account is said putari ‘to be adjusted,’ in which the sum is pura ‘net.’ So also that discourse in which the words are arranged pure ‘neatly,’ that it may not be confused and that it may be transparent of meaning, is said disputare ‘to discuss’ a problem or question. Our word disserit is used in a figurative meaning as well as in relation to the fields: for as the kitchen-gardener disserit ‘distributes’ the things of each kind upon his garden plots, so he who does the like in speaking is disertus ‘skilful.’ Sermo ‘conversation,’ I think, is from series ‘succession,’ whence serta ‘garlands’; and moreover in the case of a garment sartum ‘patched,’ because it is held together: for sermo ‘conversation’ cannot be where one man is alone, but where his speech is joined with another’s.
So we are said conserere manum ‘to join hand-to-hand fight with an enemy: so to call for vianum consertum ‘a laying on of hands’ according to law; from this, adserere manu in libertatem ‘to claim that so-and-so is free,’ when we lay hold of him. So the augurs say:
If you authorize me to take in my hand the sacred bough, then name my colleagues (consortes).

6.65 From this, moreover, sors ‘lot,’ from which the consortes ‘colleagues’ themselves are named; from this, further, sortes ‘lots,’ because in them timeideas are joined with men and things; from these, the sortilegi ‘lot-pickers, fortune-tellers’; from this, the money which is at interest is the sors ‘principal,’ because it joins one expense to another.

6.66 Legere ‘to pick or read,’ because the letters leguntur ‘are picked’ with the eyes; therefore also legati ‘envoys,’ because they leguntur ‘are chosen’ to be sent on behalf of the state. Likewise, from legere ‘to pick,’ the leguli ‘pickers,’ who legufit ‘gather’ the olives or the grapes; from this, the legumina ‘beans’ of various kinds; moreover, the leges ‘laws,’ which are lectae ‘chosen’ and brought before the people for them to observe. From this, legitima ‘lawful things’; and collegae ‘colleagues,’ who have been lecti ‘chosen’ together, and those who have been put into their places, are sublecti ‘substitutes’; those added are allecti ‘chosen in addition,’ and things which have been lecta ‘gathered’ from several places into one, are collecta ‘collected.’ From legere ‘to gather’ comes also ligna ‘firewood,’ because the wood that had fallen was gathered in the field, to be used on the fireplace. From the same source, legere ‘to gather,’ came legio ‘legion,’ and diligens ‘careful,’ and dilectus ‘military levy.’

6.67 From likeness to the sound, he is said murmurari ‘to murmur,’ who speaks so softly that he seems more as the result of the sound to be doing it, than to be doing it for the purpose of being understood. From this, moreover, the poets say
Murmuring sea-shore.
Likewise, fremere ‘to roar,’ gemere ‘to groan,’ clamare ‘to shout,’ crepare ‘to rattle’ are said from the likeness of the sound of the word to that which it denotes. From this, that passage:
Arms are resounding, a roar doth arise.
From this, also,
By your rebuking you alarm me not.

6.68 Close to these are quiritare ‘to shriek,’ iubilare ‘to call joyfully,’ He is said quiritare, who shouts and implores the protection of the Quirites.
The Quirites were named from the Curenses ‘men of Cures’; from that place they came with King Tatius to receive a share in the Roman state. As quiritare is a word of city people, so iubilare is a word of the countrymen; thus in imitation of them Aprissius says:
Oho, Fat-Face ! — Who is calling me? —
Your neighbour of long standing.
So triumphare ‘to triumph’ was said, because the soldiers shout Oho, triumph ! as they come back with the general through the City and he is going up to the Capitol; this is perhaps derived from θρίαμβος, as a Greek surname of Liber.

6.69 Spondere is to say spondeo ‘I solemnly promise,’ from sponte ‘of one’s own inclination: for this has the same meaning as from voluntas ‘personal desire.’
Therefore Lucilius writes of the Cretan woman, that when she had come of her own desire to his house to lie with him, she was of her own sponte ‘inclination’ led to throw back her tunic and other garments. The same voluntas ‘personal desire’ is what Terence means when he says that it is better Of one’s own inclination right to do.
Than merely by the fear of other folk.
From the same sponte from which spondere is said, are derived despondet ‘he pledges’ and respondet ‘he promises in return, answers,’ and desponsor ‘promiser’ and sponsa ‘promised bride’ and likewise others in the same fashion. For he spondet ‘solemnly promises’ who says of his own sponte ‘inclination’ spondeo ‘I promise’; he who spopondit ‘has promised’ is a sponsor ‘surety’; he who is by sponsus ‘formal promise’ bound to do the same thing as the other party, is a consponsus ‘co-surety.’

6.70 This is what Naevius means when he says consponsi. If money or a daughter spondebatur ‘was promised’ in connexion with a marriage, both the money and the girl who had been desponsa ‘pledged’ were called sponsa ‘promised, pledged’; the money which had been asked under the sponstis ‘engagement’ for their mutual protection against the breaking of the agreement, was called a sponsio ‘guarantee deposit’; the man to whom the money or the girl was desponsa ‘pledged,’ was called sponsus ‘betrothed’; the day on which the engagement was made, was called sponsalis ‘betrothal day.’

6.71 He who spoponderat ‘had promised’ his daughter, they said, despondisse ‘had promised her away,’ because she had gone out of the power of his sponte ‘inclination,’ that is, from the control of his voluntas ‘desire’: for even if he wished not to give her, still he gave her, because he was bound by his sponsus ‘formal promise’: for you see it said, as in comedies:
Do you now promise your daughter to my son as wife?
This was at that time considered a principle established by the praetors to supplement the statutes, and a decision of the censors for the sake of fairness. So a person is said despondisse animum ‘to have promised his spirit away, to have become despondent,’ just as he is said despondisse filiam ‘to have promised his daughter away,’ because he had fixed an end of the power of his sponte ‘inclination.’

6.72 Since spondere was said from sua sponte dicere ‘to say of one’s own inclination,’ they said also respondere ‘to answer,’ when they responderunt ‘promised in return’ to the other party’s spontem ‘inclination,’ that is, to the desire of the asker. Therefore he who says no to that which is asked, does not respondere, just as he does not spondere who has immediately said spondeo, if he said it for a joke, nor can legal action be taken against him as a result of such a sponsus ‘promise.’ Thus he to whom someone says in a comedy,
Do you recall you pledged your daughter unto me? which he had said without his sponte ‘inclination,’ cannot be proceeded against under his sponsus.

6.73 Spes ‘hope’ is perhaps also derived from sponte ‘inclination,’ because a person then sperat ‘hopes,’ when he thinks that what he wishes is coming true; for if he thinks that what he does not wish is coming true, he fears, not hopes. Therefore these also who speak in the Astraba of Plautus:
Follow now closely, Polybadiscus, I wish to overtake my hope. —
Heavens I surely do: I’m glad to overtake her whom I hope: because they speak without sponte ‘feeling of success,’ the youth who speaks does not truly ‘hope,’ nor does the girl who is ‘hoped for.’

6.74 Sponsor and praes and vas are not the same thing, nor are the matters identical from which these terms come; but they develop out of similar situations. Thus a praes is one who is asked by the magistrate that he praestat make a guarantee ‘to the state; from which, also when he answers, he says, I am your praes. He was called a vas ‘bondsman’ who promised bond for another. It was the custom, that when a party in a suit was not considered capable of fulfilling his engagements, he should give another as bondsman for him: from which they later began to provide by law against those who should sell their real estate, that they should not offer themselves as bondsmen. From this, they began to add the provision in the law about the transfer of properties, that they should not demand a bondsman, nor will a bondsman be given.

6.75 Canere ‘to sing,’ accanit ‘he sings to’ something, and succanit ‘he sings a second part,’ like canto ‘I sing’ and cantatio’ song,’ from Camena ‘Muse,’ with N substituted for M. From the fact that a person sings once, he canit: if he sings more often, he cantat. From this, cantitat ‘he sings repeatedly,’ and likewise other words; nor without canere ‘singing, playing ‘are the tubicines’ trumpeters,’ named, and the liticines ‘cometists,’ cornicines ‘horn-blowers,’ tibicines ‘pipes-players’: for canere ‘playing’ on some special instrument belongs to all these. The bucinator ‘trumpeter’ also was named from the likeness of the sound and the cantus ‘plaving.’

6.76 Oro ‘I beseech’ was so called from os ‘mouth,’ and so were peroral ‘he ends his speech’ and exorat ‘he gains by pleading,’ and oratio ‘speech’ and orator ‘speaker’ and osculum ‘kiss.’ From the same, omen ‘presage’ and ornamentum ‘ornament’: because the former was first uttered from the os ‘mouth,’ it was called osvien; the latter is now commonly used in the singular with the general idea of ornament, but as formerly most of the play-actors use it in the plural. From this, oscines ‘singing birds’ are spoken of among the augurs, which indicate their premonitions by the os ‘mouth.’

6.77 VIII. The third stage of action is, they say, that in which they faciunt ‘make’ something: in this, on account of the likeness among agere ‘to act’ and facere ‘to make’ and gerere ‘to carry or carry on,’ a certain error is committed by those who think that it is only one thing. For a person can facere something and not agere it, as a poet facit ‘makes’ a play and does not act it, and on the other hand the actor agit ‘acts’ it and does not make it, and so a play fit ‘is made’ by the poet, not acted, and agitur ‘is acted’ by the actor, not made. On the other hand, the general, in that he is said to gerere ‘carry on’ affairs, in this neither facit ‘makes’ nor agit ‘acts,’ but gerit ‘carries on,’ that is, supports, a meaning transferred from those who gerunt ‘carry’ burdens, because they support them.

6.78 In its literal sense facere ‘to make’ is from facies ‘external appearance’: he is said facere ‘to make’ a thing, who puts a facies ‘external appearance’ on the thing which he facit ‘makes.’ As the fictor ‘image-maker,’ when he says Fingo ‘I shape,’ puts a figura ‘shape’ on the object, and when he says ‘Formo’ I form,’ puts a forma ‘form’ on it, so when he says Facio ‘I make,’ he puts a facies ‘external appearance’ on it; by this external appearance there comes a distinction, so that one thing can be said to be a garment, another a dish, and likewise the various things that are made by the carpenters, the imagemakers, and other workers. He who furnishes a service, whose work does not stand out in concrete form so as to come under the observation of our physical senses, is, from his agitatus ‘action, motion,’ as I have said, thought rather agere ‘to act’ than facere ‘to make’ something; but because general practice has used these Avords indiscriminately rather than with care, we use them in transferred meanings; for he who dicit ‘says’ something, we say facere ‘makes’ words, and he who agit ‘acts’ something, we say is not inficiens ‘failing to do’ something.

6.79 And he who lights a faculam ‘torch,’ is said to facere ‘make’ a light. Lucere ‘to shine,’ from luere ‘to loose,’ because it is also by the light that the shades of night dissoluntur ‘are loosed apart’; from lux ‘light’ comes Noctiluca ‘Shiner of the Night,’ because this worship was instituted on account of the loss of the daylight. Acquirere ‘to acquire’ is ad ‘in addition’ and quaerere ‘to seek’; quaerere itself is from this, that attention is given to quae res ‘what thing’ is to be got back; from quaerere comes quaestio ‘question’; then from these, quaestor ‘investigator, treasurer.’

6.80 Video ‘I see,’ from visus ‘sight,’ this from vis ‘strength’; for the greatest of the five senses is in the eyes. For while no one of the senses can feel that which is a mile away, the strength of the sense of the eyes reaches even to the stars. From this:
They watch for what is to be seen, but hate to stay awake.
Also the verse of Accius:
When that he violated with his eyes,
Who looked upon what ought not to be seen
From which moreover they used to say violavit ‘he did violence to ‘a girl instead of vitiavit ‘ruined’ her; and similarly, with the same modesty, they used to say rather that a man fuit ‘was’ with a woman, than that he concubuit ‘lay’ with her.

6.81 Cemo has the same meaning; therefore Ennius uses it for video:
I see light in the sky — can it be dawn?
Cassius says:
I see that in her limbs there’s feeling still and motion.
Cerno ‘I see’ is said from cereo, that is, creo ‘I create’; it is said from this fact, that when something has been created, then finally it is seen. From this, the boundary lines of the parted hair, because a boundaryline is seen, got the name discrimen ‘separation’; and the cemito ‘let him decide,’ which is in a will, that is, make them see that you are heir: therefore in the cretio ‘decision’ they direct that the heir bring witnesses. From the same is that which Medea says:
I’d rather thrice decide, in battle wild.
My life or death, than bear but once a child.
Because, when they decemunt ‘decide’ about life at that time, the end of many persons’ lives is seen.

6.82 Spectare ‘to see’ is said from the old word specere, which in fact Ennius used:
After Epulo saw them, and because in the taking of the auspices there is a division into those who have the spectio ‘watch-duty’ and those who have not; and because in the taking of the auguries even now the augurs say specere ‘to watch’ a bird. Common practice even now keeps the compounds made with prefixes, as aspicio ‘I look at,’ conspicio ‘I observe,’ respicio ‘I look back at,’ suspicio ‘I look up at,’ despicio ‘I look down upon,’ and similarly others; in which group is also expecto ‘I look for, expect ‘that which I wish spectare’ to see.’
From this, specular ‘I watch’; from this, speculum ‘mirror,’ because in it we specimus ‘see’ our image.
Specula ‘look-out,’ that from which we prospicimus ‘look forth.’ Speculator ‘scout,’ whom we send ahead, that he respiciat ‘may look attentively’ at what we wish. From this, the instrument with which we anoint our eyes by which we specimus ‘see,’ is called a specillum ‘eye-spatula.’

6.83 From the aures ‘ears’ seem to have been said the words audio ‘I hear’ and ausculto ‘I listen, heed’; aures ‘ears’ from area ‘I am eager,’ because with these we are ever eager to learn, which Ennius seems to wish to show as the radical in his Alexander, when he says:
A long time eager have been my spirit and my ears.
Awaiting eagerly some message from the games.
It is on account of this eagerness of the ears that the theatres are filled. From audire ‘to hear’ is derived also auscultare ‘to listen, heed,’ because they are said auscultare who obey what they have heard; from which comes the poet’s saying:
I hear, but do not heed.
With the change of a letter are formed odor or olor ‘smell’; from this, olet ‘it emits an odour,’ and odorari ‘to detect by the odour,’ and odoratus ‘perfumed,’ and an odora ‘fragrant’ thing, and similarly other words.

6.84 With the mouth edo ‘eat,’ sorbeo ‘I suck in,’ bibo ‘I drink,’ poto ‘I drink.’ Edo from Greek έδω ‘I eat’; from this, esculentum ‘edible’ and esca ‘food’ and edulia ‘eatables’; and because in Greek it is γεύεται ‘he tastes,’ in Latin it is gustat. Sorbere ‘to suck in,’ and likewise bibere ‘to drink,’ from the sound of the word, as for water fervere ‘to boil’ is from the sound like the action. From the same language, because there it is πότον ‘drink,’ is potto ‘drink,’ whence poculum ‘cup,’ potatio ‘drinking-bout,’ repotia ‘next day’s drinking.’ From the same comes puteus ‘well,’ because the old Greek word was like this, and not φρέαρ as it is now.

6.85 From manus ‘hand’ comes manupretium ‘workman’s wages’; mancipium ‘possession of property,’ because it capitur ‘is taken’ manu’ in hand’; manipulus ‘maniple,’ because it unites several manus ‘hands’; manipularis ‘soldier of a maniple,’ manica ‘sleeve.’ Manubrium ‘handle,’ because it is grasped by the manus ‘hand.’ Mantelium ‘towel,’ on which the manus ‘hands’ terguntur ‘are wiped.’ . . .

6.86 IX. Now first I shall put down some extracts from the Censors’ Records:
When by night the censor has gone into the sacred precinct to take the auspices, and a message has come from the sky, he shall thus command the herald to call the men: May this be good, fortunate, happy, and salutary to the Roman people — the Quirites — and to the government of the Roman people — the Quirites — and to me and my colleague, to our honesty and our office: All the citizen soldiers under arms and private citizens as spokesmen of all the tribes, call hither to me with an inlicium ‘invitation,’ in case any one for himself or for another wishes a reckoning to be given.

6.87 The herald calls them first in the sacred precinct (templum), afterwards he calls them likewise from the walls. When it is dawn, the censors, the clerks, and the magistrates are anointed with myrrh and ointments. When the praetors and the tribunes of the people and those who have been called to the invitation meeting have come, the censors cast lots with each other, as to which one of them shall conduct the ceremony of purification. When the sacred precinct has been determined, then after that he who is to perform the purification conducts the assembly.

6.88 In the Consular Commentaries I have found the following account:
He who is about to summon the citizen-army, shall say to his assistant, Gaius Calpurnius, call all the citizens hither to me, with an inlicium ‘invitation.’ The assistant speaks thus: All citizens, come ye hither to the judges, to an invitation meeting. Gaius Calpurnius, says the consul, call all the citizens hither to me, to a gathering. The assistant speaks thus: All citizens, come hither to the judges, to a gathering. Then the consul makes declaration to the army:
I order you to go by the proper way to the centuriate assembly.’

6.89 Why the latter speaks to the accensus ‘assistant’ and the former to the herald — this is the reason: in some affairs the accensus ‘assistant’ acciebat ‘gave the call’ just like a herald, from which the accensus also got his name. That the accensus was accustomed ciere ‘to give the call,’ is shown by the Boeotia, a comedy which some say is a work of Plautus, and others say is a work of Aquilius, in this verse:
Soon as the aide had called that ’twas the hour of noon.
Cosconius records the same in his work on Civil Cases, that the praetor had the habit of ordering his accensus, at the tintie when he thought that it is the third hour, to call out that it is the third hour, and Likewise midday and the ninth hour.

6.90 That someone was regularly sent around the walls, inlicere ‘to entice’ the people to that place from which he might call them to the gathering, not only before the consuls and the censors, but also before the quaestors, is shown by an old Commentary on the Indictment which the quaestor Manius Sergius son of Manius brought against Trogus, accusing him of a capital offence; in which there is the following:

6.91 You shall give your attention to the auspices, and take the auspices in the sacred precinct (templum); then you shall send to the praetor or to the consul the favourable presage which has been sought. The praetor shall call the accused to appear in the assembly before you, and the herald shall call him from the walls: it is proper to give this command. A horn-blower you shall send to the doorway of the private individual and to the Citadel (Arx) where the signal is to sound.
Your colleague you shall request that from the speaker’s stand he proclaim an assembly, and that the bankers shut up their shops. You shall seek that the senators express their opinion, and bid them be present; you shall seek that the magistrates express their opinion, the consuls, the praetors, the tribunes of the people, and your colleagues, and you shall bid them all be present in the temple; and when you send the request, you shall summon the gathering.

6.92 In the same Commentary on the Indictment, at the end, this summing up of the edict is written:
Likewise in what pertains to those who have received from the censors the contract for the trumpeter who gives the summons to the centuriate assembly, they shall see to it that on that day, on which the assembly shall take place, the trumpeter shall sound the trumpet on the Citadel and around the walls, and shall sound it before the house-entrance of this accursed Titus Quintius Trogus, and that he be present in the Campus Martius at daybreak.

6.93 That between the sending around the walls and the calling of the gathering some time elapses, is clear from those things the doing of which in the meantime is written down as the inlicium ‘invitation’; but the people is called to appear in the assembly because for any other reason this magistrate cannot call together the citizen-army of the City. The censor, the consul, the dictator, the interrex can, because the censor arranges in centuries the citizen-army for a period of five years, when he must ceremonially purify it and lead it to the city under its standards; the dictator and the consul do so every year, because the latter can order the citizen-army where it is to go, a thing which they are accustomed to order on account of the centuriate assembly.

6.94 Therefore there is no doubt that this is the inlicium, when they go around the walls that the people may inlici ‘be enticed’ before the eyes of the magistrate who has the authority to call the men into that place from which the voice of the one who is calling them to the gathering can be heard. Therefore there come from the same source also illici ‘to be enticed’ and inlicis ‘thou enticest,’ which are in the Chorus of Proserpina, and pellexit ‘lured,’ which is in the Hermiona, when Pacuvius says:
Desire for another’s kingdom lured him on.
So also the altar of Jupiter Elicius ‘the Elicited’ on the Aventine, from elicere ‘to lure forth.’

6.95 This is now done otherwise than it was of old, because the augur is present with the consul when the citizen-army is summoned, and says in advance the formulas which he is to say. The consul regularly gives order to the augur, not to the assistant nor to the herald, that he shall call the inlicium ‘invitation.’
I believe that this was begun on an occasion when the assistant was not present; it really made no difference to whom he gave the order, and it was for form’s sake only that certain things were done, but they were not always said or done in just the same way. This very word inlicium I have found written in the Commentaries of Marcus Junius »; that however inlex in Plautus’s Persa is a person who does not obey the lex ‘law,’ and in the same work illex is also that which illicit ‘entices,’ is the result of the fact that I has much in common with E and C with G.

6.96 X. But since in this connexion I have spoken at length on a few matters, I shall speak briefly on a number of topics, and especially on the Latin words whose origin they think to be in the Greek tongue: as scalpere ‘to engrave’ from σκαλευειν ‘to scratch, stemere ‘to spread out’ from στρωννθειν, lingere ‘to lick up’ from λιχμασθαι, i ‘go thou’ from ιθι, ite ‘go ye’ from ιτε, gignitur ‘he is born’ from γιγνεται, ferte ‘bear ye’ from φέρετε, providere ‘to act with foresight’ from προιδειν ‘to see ahead, foresee,’ errare ‘to stray’ from ερρειν’ to go away’; strangulare ‘to strangle’ from the word στραγγαλαν, tinguere ‘to dip, dye ‘from τεγγειν. Besides, there is depsere ‘to knead’ from δεψησαι; from the word which they call μαλασσειν, we say malaxare ‘to soften,’ as gargarissare ‘to gargle’ from αναγαργαριζεσθαι, putere ‘to stink’ from πυθεσθαι. ‘to decay,’ domare ‘to subdue’ from δαμαζειν, mulgere ‘to milk’ from αμελγειν, pectere ‘to comb’ from πεκειν, stringere ‘to scrape’ from στλεγγιζειν’: for this is from στλεγγις ‘scraper’ as runcinare ‘to plane’ from runcina ‘plane,’ of which ρυκανη is the Greek source.

6.97 XI. As to what concerns the sources of the words which belong to this book, sufficiently numerous examples of this kind have, I think, been set down; I shall stop, and since I have undertaken to send you three books on these topics, two about prose composition and one about poetical, and I have sent vou the two about prose, the former about places and the things that are in them, the latter about time-ideas and those things which are associated with them, I shall at last, in the next book, begin to write of the sources of words used in poetry.

BOOK VI ENDS

7.1 I. HERE BEGINS BOOK VII AT THIS POINT, IN THE MODEL COPY, ONE LEAF IS LACKING, ON WHICH IS THE BEGINNING OF BOOK VII

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.

7.2 Even though you employ these tools to unearth the intent of him who apphed 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 Saltans, which was made by Aelius, an outstanding scholar in Latin hterature, 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.

7.3 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 Saltans 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.

7.4 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.

7.5 II. 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.

7.6 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:
O 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.

7.7 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.

7.8 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.”

7.9 In making this templum, 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.

7.10 As to his adding that the temples shall be tesca ‘wild lands,’ those who have written glossaries 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.

7.11 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.

7.12 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 it;
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.

7.13 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 contimio ‘without interval,’ because every templum ought to be fenced in uninterruptedly and have not more than one entrance.

7.14 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.

7.15 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.

7.16 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.

7.17 The same has this:
O 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 ομφαλος, which they say is the tomb of the Python. From this our interpreters turned the word into umbilicus ‘navel.’

7.18 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.

7.19 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.

7.20 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.

7.21 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.

7.22 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.

7.23 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.

7.24 III. … 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.

7.25 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.’

7.26 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:
O 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’It come especially, thou the superior of these kings . . .

HERE A SPACE OF TEN LINES WAS LEFT VACANT IN THE MODEL COPY

7.27 . . . (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.’

7.28 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.

7.29 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.

7.30 In Lucilius:
Why should I try to tell to you Roundway’s roundabout 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.’

7.31 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 παροιμια ‘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.

7.32 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 singular 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 cams, 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.

7.33 As some have said canes in the singular, so others have said trabes ‘beam, ship ‘in the singular:
The beaked 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.

7.34 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.

7.35 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.

7.36 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 fari ‘to speak’ those events that were to come, from which speaking they were called Fauni, As for vales 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.

7.37 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.

7.38 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.

7.39 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 Lucanians’: 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 likewise (for what many call teeth are really horns ), they called the animal a Luca bos, because they thought it a Lucana bos ‘Lucanian cow.’

7.40 If the Lucae botes 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.

7.41 In Ennius there is this:
Back without peace comes th’ orator, 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, those were selected for the pleading who could plead the case most skilfully. Therefore Ennius says:
Spokesmen, learnedly speaking.

7.42 In Ennius is this:
Olli answered Egeria’s voice, speaking softly and sweetly.
Olli ‘to him’ is the same as illi, dative to feminine olla and to masculine ollus. The one of these is said by the herald when he announces at the elections Olla ‘that’ century, and not ilia. The other is heard in the case of funerals of which announcement is made, wherein is said Ollus ‘that man’ has been given to letum ‘death,’ which the Greek calls Λήθη, that is, oblivion.

7.43 In Ennius this verse is found:
Banquets he first did establish, and likewise the shields that are holy
The ancilia ‘shields’ were named from their ambecisus ‘incision on both sides,’ because these arms were incised at right and left like those of the Thracians.

7.44 Cakes and their bakers, Argei and priests with conical topknots.
Liba ‘cakes,’ so named because they are made libare ‘to offer’ to the gods. Ficiores ‘bakers’ were so called from fingere ‘to shape’ the liba. Argei from the city Argos : the Argei are made of rushes, human figures twenty-seven in number; these are each 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.’

7.45 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.

7.46 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 were cata, the cata words must be understood as sharp or pointed.

7.47 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 scomber.
These words are names of fishes; they originated in Greece.

7.48 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.

7.49 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 belbim. From the same reason, Duellona ‘Goddess of War’ became Bellona.

7.50 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 ‘Collarbone.’ Fesperugo ‘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.

7.51 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 (uprema) time of day be at sunset.
The Books of the Augurs call the last time for augury a tempestus and not a tempestas.

7.52 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 karpon. 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.

7.53 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.

7.54 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. Carere is from carere ‘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.

7.55 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.

7.56 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.

7.57 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 .

7.58 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-drop!,’ 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.

7.59 Pacuvius says:
When the gods’ portents triply strong . . .

7.60 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.

7.61 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.

7.62 In The Lazy Hanger-on:
I started to go home by a side-way to the right.
Trames side-way ‘is said from iransversum’ turned across.’

7.63 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.

7.64 In The Story of the Trinket-Box:
As if they aren’t here now, the dark and dirty slugs.
Limax ‘slug’ from limus ‘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:
Misshapen masks with twisted features, ugly wonders (miriones).

7.65 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.
Strittahillae is fromi strettillare, itself from strittare, said of a person who with difficulty keeps on his feet.

7.66 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.

7.67 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.

7.68 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.

7.69 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.’

7.70 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 praejectio ‘appointment as leader.’

7.71 In Ennius we find:
Treasures which ten of the Coclites buried.
High on the tops of Rhiphaean mountains.
Codes ‘one-eyed’ Avas 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.

7.72 IV. 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.

7.73 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.

7.74 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.

7.75 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.

7.76 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.

7.77 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.

7.78 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.

7.79 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.’

7.80 V. 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.’

7.81 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.

7.82 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 ανδρα μαχεται ‘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.

7.83 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.’

7.84 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.

7.85 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.

7.86 In Plautus:
There’s one thing I except:
The olive-salad there is eaten just like mad.

7.87 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:
Thetis 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.

7.88 All these are of Greek origin, as is also that which is in the verse of Pacuvius:
I roam, in halcyon fashion 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 rittis ‘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.

7.89 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 κωμος ‘merry-making,’ from which come the Latin comissatio ‘revel’ and in Greek, as certain authorities write, κωμωδια ‘comedy.’

7.90 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.

7.91 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 cicais; 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.

7.92 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.

7.93 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,’

7.94 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 κλεπτειν ‘to steal.’

7.95 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.’

7.96 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 scaepirum ‘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.’

7.97 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 σκαια; 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.

7.98 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.’

7.99 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 quom ‘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.

7.100 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.’

7.101 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.

7.102 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.

7.103 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.

7.104 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.

7.105 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 Mucins 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.

7.106 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 liqvida ‘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.’

7.107 VI. 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 fronte ‘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 ‘collide’ 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, corifictant ‘they unite on a tale,’ said from agreeing on a confictum ‘fabrication.’

7.108 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 εκβολή; 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.

7.109 VII. 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 Pubhus 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.

7.110 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.

End

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