The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

i. Human beings and their parts (De homine et partibuseius)
1.Nature (natura)issocalled because it causes
something to be born (nasci, ppl. natus), for it has the
power ofengenderingandcreating. Some people say that
this is God, by whom all things have been created and
exist. 2.Birth (genus)isnamedfromgenerating(gignere,
ppl. genitus), and the term is derived from ‘earth,’ from
which all things are born, for in Greek ‘earth’ is called .
3. Life(vita) isnamedonaccountofitsvigor(vigor) or
because it holds the power (vis)ofbeingbornandgrowing.
Whence even trees are said to possess life, because
they are generated and grow. 4. Human beings (homo)
are so named because they were made from the soil
(humus), just as is [also] said in Genesis (cf. 2:7): “And
God created man of the soil of the earth.” Incorrectly,
the whole human is named from this term, that is, the
whole human consisting of both substances, the association
of soul and body. But strictly speaking, ‘human
being’ is from ‘soil.’
5. The Greeks called the human being
because he has been raised upright from the soil and
looks upward in contemplation of his Creator (perhaps
cf. , “eye, face, countenance”). The poet Ovid
describes this when he says (Met. 1.84):
Book XI
The human being and portents
(De homine et portentis)
While the rest of the stooping animals look at the
ground, he gave the human an uplifted countenance,
and ordered him to see the sky, and to raise his upturned
face to the stars.
And the human stands erect and looks toward heaven
so as to seek God, rather than look at the earth, as do
the beasts that nature has made bent over and attentive
to their bellies. 6. Human beings have two aspects: the
interior and the exterior. The interior human is the soul
[and] the exterior is the body.
7. Soul (anima) takes its name from the pagans, on
the assumption that it is wind – hence wind is called
in Greek, because we seem to stay alive by drawing
air into the mouth. But this is quite clearly untrue,
since the soul is generated much earlier than air can be
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taken into the mouth, because it is already alive in the
mother’s womb. 8. Therefore the soul isnotair, as was
believed by some people who were unable to grasp its
incorporeal nature. 9.Thespirit (spiritus)isthe same as
what the Evangelist calls the ‘soul’ when he says (John
10:18): “I have the power to lay down my soul (anima),
and I have the power to take it up again.” With regard
to the soul of the Lord at the time of his Passion, the
aforementioned Evangelist wrote in these words, saying
(John 19:30): “And bowing his head, he gave up the
spirit (spiritus).” 10.Whatelsecan “to give up the spirit”
be if it is not to lay down one’s soul? – for soul is so
called because it is alive: spirit, however, is so called either
because of its spiritual (spiritalis) nature, or because it
inspires (inspirare)inthebody.
11. In like manner some people say that the will
(animus)andthe soul (anima)arethesame, even though
soul is characteristic of life, while will is characteristic of
intention. Whence the philosophers say that life can continue
to exist even without the will, and that the soul can
endure without the mind (mens)–whichiswhyweuse
the term ‘the mindless’ (amens). The mind is so called
in that it knows; the will, in that it desires. 12.Themind
(mens)issocalled because it is eminent (eminere)inthe
soul, or because it remembers (meminisse). This is why
one calls ‘forgetful people’ (immemoris) also ‘mindless’
(amens). Because of this, ‘mind’ is not the word we use
for the soul, but for that which is the superior part in the
soul, as if the mind were its head or its eye. It is for this
same reason also that the human being, due to his mind,
is said to be the image of God. Further, all these things
are adjoined to the soul in such a way that it is one entity.
Different terms have been allotted to the soul according
to the effects of its causes. 13. Indeed,memory is mind,
whence forgetful people are called mindless. Therefore it
is soul when it enlivens the body, will when it wills, mind
when it knows, memory (memoria) whenitrecollects,
reason (ratio) whenitjudges correctly, spirit when it
breathes forth, sense (sensus)when it senses something.
Will is said to be sense (sensus) withregardtowhatit