The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

234 XI.i.46–i.58 Isidore of Seville
which they also take their name. The ancients named the
beard (barba) that which pertains to men (vir) andnot
to women. 1
46. Theear (auris) owes its name to the fact that it
draws in (aurire,i.e. haurire,“drinkin”)sounds, whence
Vergil also says (cf. Aen. 4.359):
He drank in with these ears (auribus ausit) his words.
Or it is because the Greeks called the voice itself ,
from ‘hearing’ (auditus); through the change of a letter
ears (auris, pl. aures) are named as if the term
were audes. Indeed, the voice makes a sound when it
rebounds through the curvature of the ears, whereby
the ears receive the sense of hearing. The highest part
of the ear is called pinnula from its pointedness, for the
ancients used to call a point pinnus, whence also we get
the words for ‘two-headed axe’ (bipinnis) andfeather
(pinna).
47.Nostrils (naris,ablative nare)are so called, because
through them odor and breath ceaselessly ‘swim’ (nare),
or because they warn us with odor, so that we ‘know’
(noscere,withformsinnor-) and understand something.
Hence the opposite: those who do not know anything
and who are unrefined are called ignorant (ignarus).
Our forefathers used the word for ‘smelling something’
(olfacere)tomean knowing (scire), as in Terence (cf. The
Brothers 397):
Andwould they not have ‘sniffed it out’ (olfacere) six
whole months before he started anything?
48.Becauseitisequalinitslength and its curvature, the
straight part of the nose is called the column (columna);
its tip is pirula,from the shape of the fruit of a pear-tree
(pirus); the parts to the left and right are called ‘little
wings’ (pinnula), from similarity to wings (ala; cf. pinna,
“feather”), and the middle part is called interfinium.
49. Themouth (os) issocalled, because through the
mouth as if through a door (ostium)webringfood in and
throw spit out; or else because from that place food goes
in and words come out. 50.The lips (labia)aresocalled
from licking (lambere). The upper lip we call labium,the
lower – because it is thicker – labrum.Others call the lips
of men labra, the lips of women labia. 51.Varroisof the
opinion that the tongue (lingua) wasgiventhis name
because it binds (ligare)food together. Others think that
this is because it binds together words from articulated
sounds, for, just as the plectrum strikes upon strings,
so also the tongue strikes against the teeth and makes a
vocal sound.
52. Teeth (dens, pluraldentes) the Greeks call
, andfromthere the word seems to have been introduced
into Latin. The first of these are called incisors
(praecisor) because they bite beforehand (i.e. as if ‘preincise’)
into everything ingested. The next in line are
called canines (caninus), two of which are in the right
jaw and two in the left. And they are called canines
because they resemble dogs’ teeth, and dogs crush bones
with them, as does a human being; so that what the
teeth in front cannot cut they pass on to these, so that
they may break it apart. The common people call these
colomelli (cf. columella, “column”) due to their length
and roundness. The last ones are the molars (molaris),
which break up what has been bitten off and crushed
by the teeth in front and grind (molere) itandmush it;
whence they are called molars. 53.Fromtheteethonecan
tell apart the sexes, for in men there are more, in women
fewer.
54. The gums (gingiva) derive their name from producing
(gignere) teeth. However, they were also created
as decoration for the teeth, for if the teeth existed without
cover, they would cause horror rather than being considered
an ornament. 55. Our palate is placed, like the
heavens, above, and thence palate (palatum) isderived
from sky (polus). In the same vein the Greeks call the
palate (“palate, vault of the sky”), because, due
to its concave shape, it bears a resemblance to the sky.
56. Thethroat (fauces) gets its name from pouring
forth (fundere) voices, or else because with its help we
‘speak voices’ (fari voces). The windpipe (arteria) isso
called either because by its means air (aer), that is, breath,
is conducted from the lungs, or else because it retains
the vital breath in tight (artus) and narrow passageways,
whence it emits the sounds of the voice. These sounds
would all sound alike if the movement of the tongue did
not cause a modulation of the voice. 57. IntheGallic
language toles (cf. classical Latin toles, “goiter”) –what
in the diminutive are commonly called tonsils (tusilla,
i.e. tonsilla) –isthe name for the part in the throat
that often swells up (turgescere). The chin (mentum)
is so called, because from there the jaws (mandibula)
begin – that is, because there they are joined together.
1 Here and elsewhere Isidore’s observation indicates that the distinction
between the sounds b and v has been lost. See for example
76 below.