The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

Now inthis little book we have noted in a short sketch,
as it were, certain principles of the heavenly bodies and
locations of the land and expanses of the sea, so that the
reader may go through them in a short time, and through
this succinct brevity come to know their etymologies and
causes. 1
i. The world (De mundo) 1. Theworldconsists of the
sky and the land, the sea and the creations of God within
them. Whence it is said (John 1:10): “And the world
was made by him.” ‘World’ (mundus) isnamedthus
in Latin by the philosophers, because it is in eternal
motion (motus), as are the sky, the sun, the moon, the
air, the seas. Thus no rest is allowed to its elements; on
this account it is always in motion. 2. Whence to Varro
the elements seemed to be animate, “Because,” he says,
“they moveoftheirownaccord.” But the Greeks adopted
atermforworld(mundus, also meaning “cosmetics”)
derived from ‘ornament,’ on account of the diversity of
elements and the beauty of the heavenly bodies. They
call it , which means “ornament,” for with our
bodily eyes we see nothing more beautiful than the
world.
3. Thereare four zones in the world, that is, four
regions: the East and the West, the North and the South.
4.TheEast (oriens)isnamed from the rising (exortus)of
the sun. The West (occidens) isnamed because it makes
the day set (occidere) and perish, for it hides the light
from the world and brings on darkness. 5. TheNorth
(septentrio) issocalledfrom the seven (septem) stars at
the North Pole (i.e. the Big Dipper), which wheel as they
rotate around it. Strictly speaking this is called the vertex
(i.e. the celestial pole) because it turns (vertere), as the
poet says (Vergil, Aen. 2.250):
The heavens turn (vertere) inthe meantime.
1 Some material in this book repeats information from the treatment
of astronomy in III.xxiv-lxxi. Note that the Latin word caelum
may be translated “sky” or “heaven(s)” – i.e. anything above the
earth.
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Book XIII
The cosmos and its parts
(De mundo et partibus)
6. TheSouth(meridies) issonamed either because
there the sun makes midday (medium diem), as if the
word were medidie, orbecause at that time the aether
sparkles more purely, for merus means “pure.” 7. The
sky has two portals: the East and the West, for the sun
enters through one portal and withdraws through the
other. 8. The world has two poles (cardo, i.e. celestial
poles), the North and the South, for the sky revolves
around them.
ii. Atoms (De atomis) 1. Atoms (atomus) arewhat the
philosophers call certain corporeal particles in the world
that are so tiny that they are not visible to sight, and do
not undergo , that is, “splitting,” whence they are
called . Theyaresaidto fly through the void of
the entire world in unceasing motion and to be carried
here and there like the finest dust motes that may be
seen pouring in through the window in the sun’s rays.
Some pagan philosophers have thought that all trees and
plants and fruits have their origins from these particles,
and that from them fire and water and the universe were
born and exist. 2. Thereare atoms in bodies, in time,
and in number. In a body, such as a stone. You may
divide it into parts, and the parts into grains, like sand;
then divide the grains of sand themselves into the finest
dust, until, if you can, you will reach a certain minute
particle, which no longer can be divided or split. This
particle is the atom in bodies. 3.Withreferencetotime,
the atom is understood in this way: you may divide a
year, for example, into months, months into days, days
into hours. The parts of hours still admit division until
you come toapointoftimeandaspeck of an instant such
that it cannot be extended through any small interval,
and thus can no longer be divided. This is an atom of
time. 4. Innumber, take for example eight divided into
four, and four into two, and then two into one. But one is
an atom, because it is indivisible. Thus also with letters
(i.e. speech-sounds), for speech is divided into words,
words into syllables, syllables into letters. But a letter,
the smallest part, is an atom and cannot be divided.