[4] See the quotations in Steinthal: “Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft bei den Griechen und Römern” (1863), pp. 181 sq.
[5] Proclus, p. 9.
[6] Anomalist as he was, moreover, Krates was not blind to the defects of language as it was commonly used, and it would appear that the ninth book of his Satires was devoted to the reform of orthography.
[7] He introduced the practice of writing r between two vowels instead of s, and banished the use of z “because its pronunciation resembles the sound that passes through the teeth of a dying man” (Pomp. Dig. i. 2, 2, 36, Mart. Cap. i. 3, § 261, ed. Kopp). Panætius had read his poetical “Maxims,” or “Sententiæ,” which Cicero calls “Pythagorean” (Tusc. iv. 2, 4).
[8] Max Müller: “Lectures on the Science of Language” (eighth edition, 1875), p. 111.
[9] It is given in Bekker’s “Anecdota,” pp. 629-643. Its authenticity is satisfactorily defended by Lersch, “Sprachphilosophie der Alten,” ii. pp. 64-103.
[10] Γραμματική ἔστιν ἐμπειρία τῶν παρὰ ποιηταῖς τε καὶ συγγραφεῦσιν ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ λεγομένων. Μέρη δὲ αὐτῆς εἰσὶν ἕξ· πρῶτον ἀνάγνωσις ἐντριβὴς κατὰ προσῳδίαν, δεύτερον ἐξήγησις κατὰ τοὺς ἐνυπάρχοντας ποιητικούς τρόπους, τρίτον γλωσσῶν τε καὶ ἱστοριῶν πρόχειρος ἀπόδοσις, τέταρτον ἐτυμολογίας εὕρεσις, πέμπτον ἀναλογίας ἐκλογισμός, ἕκτον κρίσις ποιημάτων, ὅ δὴ καλλιστόν ἐστι πάντων τῶν ἐν τῇ τέχνῃ.
[11] A good idea of the character of his etymologizing may be gathered from the following quotation:—“Vestis nomen factum est per syncopen ex composito perestis, et mutato r in s (ut sæpe factum est), pesestis sive pesestas, a verbo per-edo, per-es, per-est; quo significatur, quidquid peredit et plane consumit et perdit materiam quamque, unde facta est, ut lues illa epidemica pestis appellationem obtinuerat.” Elsewhere he asserts that sin is derived from σίνειν, while so is merely ὥς reversed. But Junius is quite equalled by Scaliger, Voss, Wachter, and other philologists of the same school. Thus Scaliger says (“De Caus.” c. 35):—“Ordinis nomen Græcum est. Dicebant militibus tribuni—‘Hactenus tibi licet; hic consistes: eò progrediere, huc revertere; ὅρον δῶ,’ inde ordo;” and again (“De Caus.” c. 28) that quatuor is κατερα, i.e. και ετερα (the aspirate being dropped as among the Æolians), because when the Latins had counted “unum, alterum, tria; pro quarto dixere et alterum.” Scaliger, again, agrees with Voss in deriving “opacus ex Ope, hoc est, terrâ; nam umbræ et frigoris captandi causa in subterraneos se specus abdebant,” and pomum from πῶμα, because most fruits quench the thirst. Voss identifies the Latin rus with the Greek ἄρουρα, “præciso a,” and declares: “ab ἔπω, qua notat operor, venit Latinum opus.” Perhaps the various etymologies proposed for the word cause by Perottus will give the best illustration of what once passed for “a true account of the origin of words.” It is either (1) from chaos, as being the first cause of things, or (2) from καῦσις, because heat “kindles and inflames us” to action, or (3) “a cavendo,” because a cause forewarns (“cavet”) us that something should or should not be done, or, finally (4), “a casu, quia causa accidit.” To these Voss adds a fresh possibility, that causa comes from “caiso,” that is, “quærere seu petere.” Perottus, again, derives “locusta ex locus et ustus, quod tactu multa urat, morsu vero omnia erodat.” We cannot but be struck by the ingenuity of these old scholars. Wachter, however, offers us equally absurd etymologies in the field of modern High German. Thus he brings kämpfen (from campus) from kam, “the fist,” cat from ge-wachten, the French guêter (!), and agrees with Clauberg in making neigen the source of nacht.
[12] Where there is so much to choose from it is difficult to select; but perhaps the richest morsels of the book are the reference of the Latin suffix -or in words like sonorous, as well as the final syllable of Hebrew words like tabor, to the “Celtic” mhor, “great,” and the derivation of the Egyptian Rameses from the “Celtic” raromeireas, “gasconading.” The author, however, cannot claim to be facile princeps of the year in the matter of bad etymologizing. A certain Mr. Boult has printed two papers, read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, in which, among other novel statements, he informs us that city is derived from the “Celtic” sigh-tigh or “peace-house;” count from co-meas, “united assessment,” alderman from all-dor-meann, “chief of the great door,” and custom from cur-do-meas, “rent of assessment.” It is needless to observe that “Celtic” with both writers means the decayed forms of an Irish dictionary.
[13] “Whitney’s Sprachwissenschaft,” p. 660.