Chapter 29. On etymology.
1. Etymology is the derivation of words,[186] when the force of a verb or a noun is ascertained through interpretation. This Aristotle called σύμβολον, and Cicero, notatio, because it explains the names of things;[187] as, for example, flumen is so called from fluere, because it arose from flowing.
2. A knowledge of etymology is often necessary in interpretation, for, when you see whence a name has come, you grasp its force more quickly. For every consideration of a thing is clearer when its etymology is known. Not all names, however, were given by the ancients in accordance with nature, but certain also according to whim, just as we sometimes give slaves and estates names according to our fancy.
3. Hence it is that the etymologies of some names are not found, since certain things have received their name not according to the quality in which they originated, but according to man’s arbitrary choice. Etymologies are given in accordance with cause, as reges from regere, that is, recte agere; or origin, as homo because he is from the earth (humus); or from contraries, as lutum (mud) from lavare—since mud is not clean—and lucus (sacred grove), because being shady it has little light (parum luceat).
4. Certain words also were formed by derivation from other words; as prudens from prudentia. Certain also from cries, as graculus (jackdaw) from garrulitas. Certain also have sprung from a Greek origin, and have changed over into the Latin, as silva,[188] domus.
5. Other things have derived their names from the names of places, cities, or rivers. Many also are drawn from the languages of foreign peoples; whence their derivation is perceived with difficulty; for there are many barbarous words unknown to the Greeks and Latins.
Chapter 32. On barbarism.
1. Barbarism is the uttering of a word with an error in a letter or in a quantity: a letter, as floriet, when florebit is correct; a quantity, if the first syllable is prolonged instead of the middle one, as latebrae, tenebrae. And it is called barbarism from the barbarian peoples, since they were ignorant of the purity of Latin speech; for each nation becoming subject to the Romans, transmitted to Rome along with their wealth their faults, both of speech and of morals.
Chapter 37. On tropes.
1. Tropes are so named by the grammarians from a Greek word which in Latin means modi locutionum. They are turned from their own meaning to a kindred meaning that is not their own. And it is very difficult to comment on the names of them all, but Donatus gave for practice a list of thirteen selected from the whole number.