The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

300 XIV.viii.41–viii.11 Isidore of Seville
merchandise, with the same declension – baia, gen.
baias –asthedeclensionfamilia, gen.familias (“household”).
41. Theshore (litus) island next to water and
the sea: and it is called litus, because it is dashed (elidere)bythe
waves, or else because it is bathed (alluere)by
water. Cicero says in Topics (32): “The shore is where the
waves play (eludere).” 42.‘Alluvial land’ (circumluvium)
is a place which water ‘flows around’ (circumluere); a
‘flood plain’ (alluvium) isanerodingofriverbanks by
water. A border (margo) isapartofeveryplace,asfor
example of the sea (mare); after which it is also named.
‘Maritime places’ (maritime)aresocalled as if the word
were maris intima (“near the sea”). 43. River-mouths
(ostium) aresocalledfrom the entrance and exit of a
river into the sea. A mainland (continens) isastretch
of continuous land uninterrupted by any sea, what the
Greeks call .
ix. The lower regions (De inferioribus) 1. A cave
(specus)isasubterranean rift from which it is possible to
‘look out’ (prospicere); it is in Greek, spelunca
(“cave”) in Latin. 2. Fumarole (spiraculum) isthename
given toall places of pestilential exhalation (spiritus),
which the Greeks call ,or. 13 Varro,
too, calls such a place a fumarole; and fumaroles are
so called because they are places where the earth produces
an exhalation. 3.Acleft (hiatus)isadeepbreak of
the earth, as if the term were ‘a departure’ (itus, ppl. of
ire). Properly speaking, however, hiatus is the opening
of the mouth of a human being, with the sense transferred
from wild beasts, whose eagerness for something
is shown through opening of the mouth. 4. Thedeep
(profundum) isproperlysaidofsomethingasifitsbottom
(fundus)were‘far off’ (porro). Incorrectly, however,
‘the deep’ is applied to what is on high as well as what
lies below, as in (Vergil, Aen. 1.58):
The seas, the lands, and the deep (profundus) sky.
5. Abyss (baratrum, i.e. barathrum, i.e. ,
“pit”) is the word for an excessive depth: and it is
called baratrum, asifthetermwerevorago atra (“black
abyss”), that is, black from its depth. 6.Erebusisthedeep
inner part of the underworld. Styx is so called after the
term , that is, from “wretchedness,” because it
makes people wretched, or else because it brings forth
wretchedness.7.Cocytusisan underworld place of which
Job speaks thus . ..(seeJob21:33). Cocytus, however, has
taken its name from Greek, from affliction and sighing
(cf. , “wailing”). 8. Tartarusissocalled either
because everything in it is disturbed (turbatus), after
the word (“quake”), or, more likely, from
(“disturbance, upheaval”), that is, from shivering,
through being numb with cold, because, of course,
it lacks light and sunshine. In that place exist neither
the warmth generated by sunlight, nor any breath of air
stirred by the movement of the sun, but instead a perpetual
numbness, for means “shuddering” and
“trembling” in Greek. Indeed, in that place is “weeping
and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12,etc.).
9.Gehennaisaplaceof fire and sulphur that is believed
to have been named from a valley, consecrated to idols,
that is next to the city wall of Jerusalem, and which was
once filled with the corpses of the dead – for there the
Hebrews used to sacrifice their children to demons – and
the place itself is called Gehennon. Therefore the place
of future punishment (i.e. hell), where sinners are to be
tormented, is designated by the name of this place. They
also say that there are two Gehennas, one of fire and one
of cold. 10.Theunderworld (inferus)issocalled because
it is underneath (infra). Just as with reference to physical
bodies if things are arranged according to their weight,
all heavier ones are lower, so with reference to the spirit,
all the more grievous ones are lower; whence in the Greek
language the origin of the term by which the underworld
is called is said to echo ‘what has nothing sweet’ (i.e.
taking the Greek ,“Hades, underworld,” as from
+ ,“not sweet”). 11.Just as the heart of an animal is in
its center, so also the underworld is said to be in the center
of the earth. Whence we read in the Gospel (Matthew
12:40): “In the heart of the earth.” But philosophers say
that the ‘lower regions’ (inferi) are so named because
souls are carried (ferre)therefrom here.
13 Drawn from the netherworld terms Charon and Acheron, the
Greek words for fumaroles indicate the belief that such vaporous
orifices were entrances to the underworld.