The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

260 XII.vi.4–vi.20 Isidore of Seville
4. People gave names to livestock and beasts and flying
animals before naming fish, because the former were
seen and recognized before. Later, as the types of fish
gradually came to be known, names were established
based either on a similarity to land animals or on their
particular appearance or behavior [or color or shape or
sex]. 5. Based on a similarity to land animals, such as
‘frogs’ (i.e. “frog-fish,” and so for the rest) and ‘calves’
and ‘lions’ and ‘blackbirds’ and ‘peacocks,’ colored with
various hues on the neck and back, and ‘thrushes,’ mottled
with white, and other fish that took for themselves
the names of land animals according to their appearance.
Based on land behavior, such as ‘dogs’ in the sea,
so called from land dogs because they bite, and pikes
(lupus, lit. “wolf”), because they pursue other fish with
cruel voracity. 6. Basedoncolor, as the maigre (umbra,
lit. “shadow”), which are the color of shadows, and ‘giltheads’
(aureta), because they have the color of gold
(aurum)ontheirheads, and varii from variegation; these
are commonly called ‘trout’ (tructa). Based on shape, like
the orbis (lit. “circle”), because it is round and consists
entirely of its head, and like the sole (solea) because it
looks like the sole (solea)ofashoe. Based on sex, like the
musculus, because it functions as the male (masculus)
for whales; for it is said that ‘female sea-monsters’ (bellua)
conceive through intercourse with these animals.
Hence also the mussel (musculus cochlearum), by whose
milt oysters conceive. 7. Whales (ballena) are beasts of
enormous size, named from casting forth and spraying
water, for they throw waves higher than the other sea
animals; in Greek means “cast forth.” 8. The
sea-monster (cetus, pluralcete) isnamed, plural
, that is, on account of its vastness. 17 These are huge
types of sea-monsters (bellua), and their bodies are the
same size as mountains. Such a cetus swallowed Jonah;
its belly was so big that it resembled hell, as the prophet
says (cf. Jonah 2:3): “He heard me from the belly of hell.”
9.Sea-horses (equus marinus), because they are horses
(equus)intheir front part and then turn into fish. Bogues
(boca) aresaidtobemarine ‘cows’ (bos), as if the word
were boacas. 10. Thecaerulei (lit. “azure”) are named
from their color, for azure is green mixed with black,
like the sea. 11.Dolphins (delphin)havetheir appointed
name because they follow the voices (cf. ,“voice”)
of humans, or because they gather in a group at the
sound of music (symphonia). 18 Nothing in the sea is
faster than they are, for they often jump over ships as
they leap. When they play in the billows and dash themselves
headlong against the mass of the waves in their
leaping, they seem to portend storms. Properly, they are
called simones.There is a kind of dolphin in the Nile with
asaw-tooth back; it kills crocodiles by cutting the soft
parts of their bellies. 12. Sheatfish (porcus marinus, lit.
“sea pigs”), commonly called suilli (lit. “small swine”),
are so named because when they seek food they root
up the earth underwater like swine. At their throat they
have what functions as a mouth, and unless they submerge
their snout into the sand, they do not collect food.
13. Corvi (lit. “ravens”) are named ‘from the sound of
their breast’ (a cordis voce), because they croak in their
breast and, betrayed by their characteristic sound, they
are captured.
14.Thetuna (thynnus) has a Greek name. They come
in the spring. They approach on the right and depart on
the left; hence it is believed that they see more acutely
with the right eye than with the left. 15. The swordfish
(gladius) issocalled because it has a snout like a sword
(cf. gladius,“sword”); because of this it pierces ships and
sinks them. 16.Thesaw-fish(serra,lit. “saw”) is so named
because it has a serrated (serratus)crest, and cuts through
boats when it swims under them. 17. The scorpion-fish
(scorpio) issocalled because it causes injury when it is
picked up in the hand. They say that when ten crabs are
bound with a bundle of basil, all the nearby scorpionfish
will gather in that spot. 18. Theweever (aranea, lit.
“spider”) is a kind of fish so called because it strikes
with its ear (auris); for its ear has stingers with which it
attacks.
19.The crocodile (crocodillus), named from its saffron
(croceus) color, is born in the Nile. It is a quadruped
animal, powerful on land and also in the water. It is
commonly twenty cubits in length, armed with huge
teeth and claws, with skin so tough that it repels blows
from stones, however strong, against its back. 20.Itrests
in the water at night, and on the land during the day.
It incubates its eggs on land, the male and the female
taking turns to guard them. Certain fish with a serrated
17 Isidore misconstrues Servius, quoting Vergil’s “Huge seamonsters”
(Aen. 5.822), as meaning “sea-monsters (cete), i.e. ‘huge
ones.’” Bellua and cetus can both mean either “large sea monster” or
“whale.”
18 As symphonia can mean “a musical instrument,” Isidore may
here allude to the term delphinus, apartofthe water organ.