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48
general without reference to sex, although grammatically those in
-us are masculine and those in -a feminine. A good example of
this is seen in Pliny (lY. H. VIII, 141):
"Lacertae inimicissimum genus cocleis, negantur semestrem
vitam excedere. Lacerti Arabiae cubitales, in Indiae vero Nysa
monte XXIV in 10ngitl1dinem pedum, colore fulvi aut pUllicei, aut
caerulei," where, whether the termination be in -ae or in -i, the
entire species is meant, including both sexes. Another word of
this type is simius, si'mia, the latter being the commoner,58 but
simius appearing in Phaedrus' fable of the wolf, the fox, and
the ape. 59
Varro GO tells us that the word columba was originally an epicene,
and that when the pigeon came into wide domestic use and man
found it convenient to differentiate between the sexes, the masculine
form, columbus, was introduced for the sake of distinction.
\Ve find, however, that in those instances where this word is
employed indefinitely without sex distinction, the form in -a is
usually retained. G1 Sometimes, on the contrary, we meet with the
masculine, colulllbi."2 Either form of thi- word can thus be
given the epicene usage, although the form in -a was originally
a true epicene.
If one will turn now to the word agna, and that with which it
is closely associated, porca, attention must once more be called
to my tran lation of Varro's definition(\3 (p. 41 above), the
point of which is that man does not make a linguistic division
based on the animal's sex unless there is a practical need of such
di tinction. IIIuch of the time there is a manifest need of distinguishing
the sexes of agmfs and agna, porcus and porca, as in the
cases of equus and equa, columbus and columba, mentioned by
.. Plin. VIII, 54, 215.
.. Phaedr. I, 10.
.. See n. 56.
01 Only one or two examples will be quoted here: Plin. X, 35: "Columbae
et turtures octonis annis vivont". Yarro R. R. III, 2, 13: "alterum (sc.
genus pastionum) villaticum in quo sunt gallinae ac columbae et apes et
cetera", and 14; lIT. 5, 7: "volucres ... vcrnaculae ut gal1inae ac colllmbae".
.. Colum. VIII, 8, 1: "palumbos colllmbosque cellares pinguissimos
facere"; and 10, 2: "(Turdi) locum aeque munitum et apricum, quam
columbi desiderant".
.. R. R. IX, 55.