The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

314 XV.xii.3–xiii.17 Isidore of Seville
(tugurium) isalittle house that vineyard-keepers make
for themselves as a covering (tegimen), as if the word
were tegurium,either for avoiding the heat of the sun and
deflecting its rays, or so that from there the keeper may
drive away either the people or the animals that would lie
in wait for the immature fruit. Country people call this
a‘hut’ (capanna), because it ‘holds one’ (capiat unum)
person only. 3. Somethink a tescuum (i.e. tesquum) isa
tugurium;othersthink it is rugged and harsh terrain. 4.A
magalium is an elongated structure, made by Numidian
peasants, covered with sides that curve in like the hulls
of ships, or round in the shape of ovens. They are called
magalia as if magaria, because Phoenicians call a new
farm a magar –withoneletter changed, l for r, magalia
from magaria.
xiii. Fields (De agris) 1. Field (ager) inLatinis said to
get its name because in it something ‘is done’ (agere).
Others believe that ‘field’ is more obviously named from
the Greek, whence a farm in Greek is called a coragros. 12
2. Afarm(villa) isnamed from ‘rampart’ (vallum),
that is the heap of earth that they use to establish the
boundary-lines. 3. ‘Holdings’ (possessio) arevast public
and private fields that originally someone occupied and
owned (possidere) notbypropertytransfer but insofar
as he ‘had power’ (posse)–whence also they are named.
4. An‘estate’(fundus) issocalled because the family’s
patrimony is founded (fundare) and established on it.
Further, an estate should be taken as both one’s urban
and rural property. 5. A‘manor’(praedium) issocalled
because, of all the possessions of the head of the family,
it is the most ‘seen before’ (praevidere), that is, it is most
visible, as if the word were praevidium –orbecause the
ancients referred to the fields which they had seized in
war as ‘booty’ (praeda).
6. Noweveryfield, as Varro teaches us, falls into one
of four types. There is the arable (arvus)field, that is, for
sowing; or the plantable (consitus), that is, suitable for
trees; or pasture (pascuus), set apart for grass and herds
only; orthefloral(florus), because these are garden spots
fit for bees and flowers. Vergil followed this division in
the four books of his Georgics. 7. Theancients called
uncultivated fields – that is, forests and pasturelands –
‘open country’ (rus), but the part that was cultivated, the
‘field’ (ager). The open country is where honey, milk, and
cattle can be obtained, and from it the ‘country person’
(rusticus) isnamed. These things make up the supreme
toil-free happiness of peasants. 8.A‘field of grain’ (seges)
is where grain is sown, whence Vergil (Geo. 1.47):
That field of grain (seges) only then answers the prayers
of the eager farmer.
9.Afield is called ‘common pasture’ (compascuus)when
it is left out of the division of the fields in order to ‘provide
pasturage in common’ (pascere communiter) among
neighbors. 10.Analluvial(alluvius)field is that which a
watercourse (fluvius) gradually turns into a field. 11. A
field is called ‘naturally enclosed’ (arcifinius) whenitis
not bounded by fixed measures of boundary-lines, but
its ‘boundaries are enclosed’ (arcentur fines)byabarrier
of rivers, mountains, or trees – wherefore also no leftover
patches of land interrupt these fields.
12. Afallow (novalis) fieldisone plowed for the first
time, or one that in alternate years is left empty in order
to renew (novare) its strength, for fallow lands sometimes
will be fruitful and sometimes empty. 13.Adesolate
(squalidus) field is as it were ‘ex-cultivated’ (excolidus),
because now it has passed out of cultivation, just as the
term exconsul comes from one’s having departed from
the consulate. 14. Amarshy(uliginosus) fieldisalways
wet (uvidus), whereas a field that sometimes dries up is
called moist (humidus). Swampiness (uligo) isanatural
liquid quality of earth, never leaving it. 15. ‘Remainders’
(subseciva) are, properly speaking, what a tailor
cuts off from the material and throws away as superfluous.
Hence ‘remainders of land’ (subsiciva)areplots that,
because they are sterile or swampy, people reject when
the fields are divided into parcels. Further, ‘remainders’
are those areas that in the division of a field do not make
up a hundred-measure, that is, two hundred jugers. 16.
A‘threshing floor’ (area) isnamed for the levelness of
its floor, and it is called area because of its flatness and
evenness – hence also altar (ara). 13 Others say a threshing
floor is so called because it is smoothed off (eradere)
for threshing grain, or because only what is dry (arida)
is threshed on it. 17.Ameadow(pratum)iswhereherds
are kept because of the abundance of its hay. The ancient
Romans gave it this name because it was ‘immediately
12 The text is defective here. In question may be the Greek
or , both meaning “countryside, landed estate.”
13 The word area little resembles aequalitas,“levelness, evenness,”
but Isidore may simply allude to a synonym: aequor, like area, can
mean “a level place.” Otherwise on ara see iv.13 above.