The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

identify with Ceres. Concerning her Vergil writes (cf.
Geo. 3.1):
You also, great Pales, in your memory we will sing.
Still others say chaff took its name from ‘fodder’ (pabulum),
because at first it alone was offered for the feeding
of animals. Chaff’s property is to be contrary: so cold
that it does not permit snow blanketed with it to melt,
yet so warm that it forces fruits to ripen.
iv. Legumes (De leguminibus) 1. Legumes (legumen)
are so called from picking (legere), as if they were ‘picked
out’ (eligere,ppl. electus), for the ancients would pick all
the better ones – or because they are picked by hand
and do not need cutting. 2. Thereareseveral species of
legumes, of which the fava bean, lentil, pea, French bean,
chickpea, and lupine seed seem most favored for human
consumption. 3.The ‘fava bean’ (faba) derived its name
in a Greek etymology from ‘eating,’ as if it were faga,for
in Greek means “to eat.” Indeed humans consumed
this legume first. It has two types, one common
and the other Egyptian. 4.‘Ground fava’ (faba fresa)isso
called because people grind (frendere,ppl. fresum)it,that
is crush it, and pulverize it by milling. 5.Thelentil (lentis,
i.e. lens)issonamed because it is moist and soft (lentus),
or because it adheres to the soil (cf. lentus, “sticky”).
6. ‘Frenchbean’(faselum; cf. ) andchickpea
(cicer; cf. ) are Greek names. But faselum ...7.
Lupine (lupinus)isalsoaGreekterm,about which Vergil
wrote (Geo. 1.75):
And the sad lupines (lupinus),
because with their bitterness they make the taster’s face
look sad (cf. , “causing sorrow”) – hence on
account of their bitterness neither worms nor any other
animal eats them.
8. Lucerneclover, vetch, and bitter vetch are the best
fodders. Lucerne (medica) issocalled because it was
brought into Greece from the Medes when Xerxes, king
of the Persians, invaded it. Once sown, this lasts ten years,
and can be reaped four or six times a year. 9.Vetch(vicia)
is so named because it scarcely (vix)bears a triple yield,
while other legumes have a fertile produce. Hence Vergil
(Geo. 1.75):
Or the scanty yield of the vetch (vicia).
The Etymologies XVII.iv.1–v.8 339
10. Thepea(pisum) issocalled because by it a minute
quantity of gold would be ‘weighed out’ (pensare) –for
pis means “gold.” 3 11. ‘Bitter vetch’ (ervum) derives its
name from Greek, for they call it ,because while
it is dangerous for some livestock it nevertheless makes
bulls (cf. ,“bull”) plump.
v. Vines (De vitibus) 1.Noahfirst established the planting
of vines in an age still without cultivation. However,
the Greeks call the discoverer of the vine Liber, whence
the pagans after his death would have it that he was a
god. 2.Itiscalledavine(vitis)because it has the capacity
(vis)for taking root easily. Others think that they are
called vines because they entwine themselves about one
another with ‘ribbon-like stems’ (vitta, “fillet,”astrip
of cloth) and fasten themselves to neighboring (vicinus)
trees with their creeping growth. They are flexible in
nature, and whatever they embrace they bind tight as if
with akindofarms.3. Thelabrusca is a wild vine that
growsinmarginal land, whence it is called labrusca,from
the margins (labrum) and extremities of the land.
4.Atrunk(codex)issocalledasifitwerecaudex. 4 Likewise
the ancients would say clodus for claudus (“lame”).
5. Vine-shoots (sarmentum) arefrom‘sowing’ (serere),
[as if the word were serimentum]. A mallet-shoot (malleolus)
isasweet young vine-shoot sprung from a young
branch of the prior year, and named for its likeness to
the thing, because at the section where it is cut from the
old shoot the protuberance on both sides looks like a
hammer (malleus). 6. Eunuchs (spado) areshoots lacking
fruit, so named because they are unable to bear fruit
and are afflicted with sterility. 7. Countrypeople call
the newest part of the shoot an ‘arrow’ (sagitta), either
because it has gone off quite far from the mother-stem
and as it were shoots forth, or because it has the look of
a dart with the thinness of its point. 8. Thetopparts of
vines and bushes are called switches (flagellum), because
they are stirred by the breeze (flatus).
3 We translate Lindsay’s text, but the reading pis (an unknown
word) aurum dicitur, “pis means gold,” derives from a misreading,
by Isidore or an intermediary, of Servius’s commentary on Aeneid
6.825. ThereServiuswrotePisaurum dicitur, “(the city of) Pesaro is
so called”: Pesaro is so called because there ‘gold is weighed’ (aurum
pensatum est).
4 Codex and caudex are variants of the same word, meaning
“trunk” or “book.”