The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

“other things”) because its nature is such that wherever
one vein has appeared, there is hope for seeking out
another in that place. There are seven kinds of metals:
gold, silver, copper, electrum, tin, lead, and, what dominates
everything, iron.
xviii. Gold (De auro) 1. Gold (aurum) isnamedfrom
‘gleam’ (aura), that is, from its luster, because it gleams
more when the air reflects it. Whence Vergil says (Aen.
6.204):
From which the contrasting gleam (aura) ofgold
(aurum) shone through the branches,
that is, the luster of gold, for it is natural for the luster
of metal to gleam more when it is reflected with another
light. Hence also patrons (aurarius) are named; their
glittering renown makes others resplendent. 2. Obryzum
gold (i.e. pure gold) is so called because it shines forth
(obradiare) lustrously. It has the best color, which the
Hebrews call ophaz and the Greeks (“orangetawny”).
The thinnest sheets of gold are called gold leaf
(brattea, i.e. bractea), from the term , 11 which
is onomatopoeic for ‘clanging,’ or from sheets
(perhaps cf. , “clash”).
3.Money(pecunia)firsthaditsnameand actual character
from livestock (pecus), for coins used to be cut from
hides and then embossed. After this, bronze coinage was
invented by Saturn, for it was he who devised the stamping
and marking of coins. 4. Forthisreason the public
treasury was dedicated to Saturn by the pagans. Others,
as mentioned above, named money after livestock, just
as beasts of burden (iumentum) arenamed after ‘helping’
(iuvare), for among the ancients every inheritance
was called peculium from the livestock (pecus) ofwhich
their entire property consisted. Whence also someone
who was rich would be called a pecuarius (lit. “cattleman”),
but now, pecuniosus (“moneyed”). 5. The most
ancient people made use of bronze, since gold and silver
had not yet been discovered. Bronze (aes,gen.aeris)
money came into use first, then silver, and finally gold
followed, but money still retained its name from the
metal with which it began (i.e. aes continued to mean
‘money’ as wellas‘bronze’).Hencealso the public treasury
(aerarium)was named, because at first only bronze
11 The word is unattested elsewhere. is a scribal
corruption.
The Etymologies XVI.xviii.1–xviii.13 329
was used, and it alone was hoarded, since gold and silver
were not yet coined. Afterwards money might be made
of whatever of these metals you chose, but the term aerarium
remained, from that metal whence money had its
origin.
6. ‘Treasury’ (thesaurus) isnamed after the Greek
term , “positing,” that is, “deposit.” Thus
means “positing,” and the term has combined a Greek
with a Latin word, for the element means “deposit”
in Greek, and Latin supplies aurum (“gold”), so that
the word thesaurus sounds like the combination ‘gold
deposit.’ An auraria (i.e. a kind of tax; also a gold mine)
takes its name from gold (aurum). 7.Buttribute (tributa)
is named because earlier it used to be exacted from each
of the tribes (tribus), just as now it is exacted from each
of the territories. The Roman people were divided into
three groups so that those who were preeminent in each
group were called ‘tribunes’ (tribunus), whence they also
named the payments that the people gave ‘tributes.’ 8.
A vectigal (i.e. a type of tax) is a tribute, named from
‘conveying’ (vehere,ppl. vectus). A stipend (stipendium)
is named from ‘payment that is to be weighed’ (stips
pendenda), for the ancients were accustomed to weigh
money out instead of counting it.
Coinage (moneta) issocalled because it ‘gives warning’
(monere, 3 rd person monet) lest some fraud be committed
with either the metal or the weight. 9.Anomisma
is a gold, silver, or bronze solidus, and it is called nomisma
because it is stamped with the names (nomen,gen.nominis)
and images of rulers. The coin was first called by the
word (“silver”), because it was struck mostly
from silver (argentum). 10.Butcoins(nummus)arenow
named after Numa, a king of the Romans, who was first
among the Latins to emboss them with images and mark
them with his own name. 11. Change (follis, lit. “leather
bellows, money bag”) is named from the small sack in
which it is kept, that which is contained being named by
its container. 12. Three things are necessary in coinage:
ametal, a shape, and a weight. If something lacks any of
these, it is not coinage.
13. There are three kinds of silver, gold, and bronze:
stamped, worked, and unworked. Stamped is the kind
found in coins; worked, the kind found in vessels and
signets; unworked, the kind found in nuggets – a nugget
is also called ‘a heavy thing’ (grave,i.e.aweight). The idea
of forming metals in molds came about in this way, when
by some chance a forest fire scorched the earth, which