Figurative uses of animal names in Latin and their ... - mura di tutti

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In spite of the statement of Varro^^e and Pliny,^*'' cunicuius,
' an underground passage,' is derived from the name
of an animal and not vice versa.
Paulus gives the real sequence of the transfer in the
first of his explanations, though the second is an etymolog-
ical absurdity : Cuniculum, id est foramen sub terra occul-
tum, aut ab animali, quod simile est lepori, appellatur, cui
subterfossa terra latere est solitum, aut a cuneorum simili-
tudine qui omnem materiam intrant fidentes.^**
Vegetius, however, displays no hesitancy in his deriva-
tion, rightly ascribing the transfer to the animal's habit of
burrowing: Genus oppugnationum est subterraneum atque
secretum, quod cuniculum vocant a leporibus, qui cavernas
sub terris fodiunt ibique conduntur.
While the burrowing causes the transfer, an intermediate
step must have been the application of the term cuniculus to
the results of the animal's excavating propensities, i. e. to
the burrow.
A figure somewhat similar to that in cuniculus is found
in talpa, the mole, or digger: Talpa. Machina ad sufFo-
diendos muros, sub qua latent, qui cuniculos conficiunt.^*"
The cunicularii of earlier days are recalled by the tal-
parii: Habebat quippe quosdam artifices, quos Fossores vel
Talparios vocant, qui ad modum talpae subterranea fodi-
entes, quaslibet murorum et turrium firmitates ferramentis
validissimis perrumpebant.^*^
The popular belief in the burrowing ability of the rabbit
is shown by Pliny's statement, on Varro's authority, that the
cuniculi undermined a town in Spain.^*^ M. Varro auctor
est a cuniculis suffosum in Hispania oppidum.
Martial has a clever distich playing upon the two uses
of the word cuniculus:
Gaudet in effossis habitare cuniculus antris.
Monstravit tacitas hostibus ille vias.^*^
Varro Rust, iii, 12, 6.
^'Plin. Nat. viii, 55. 81, (218)- Veg. iv, 24.
"^Du Cange, s. v. Talpa.
"^ Quoted by Du Cange, s. v. Talparii.
'"Plin. Nat. viii, 29, 43, (104).
""Mart, xiii, 60.
"' Paul. Fest. p. 50 Mull.