Note 44 — Chapter II
Reading edition
The point has been made that Isidore shows his ignorance of the Greek language by the mistakes he made in the use of Greek words in his derivations. A few examples selected almost at random may be useful in this connection, although it must be remembered that the possibility of corruption in the text is always great.
(a) 3, 22, 6. “Chordas autem dictas a corde.” (b) 3, 22, 8. “Lyra dicta ἀπὸ τὸ λυρεῖν a varietate vocum.” (c) 12, 1, 35. “Camur enim Graecum verbum curvum significat.”
Why Isidore in (a) does not give the natural derivation from χορδή is not clear unless his knowledge of Greek was very slight. λυρεῖν, in (b), is a form that is not found in Greek. In (c) camur is not a Greek word written in Roman letters, as Isidore apparently thought. See Harper’s Latin Dictionary. Compare also the form in which Aristotle’s περὶ ἑρμηνείας is cited: de perihermeniis, praefatio perihermeniarum, in libro perihermeniarum (2, 27). Isidore’s Greek has given his editors much trouble. See Migne, Patr. Lat. 81, 328, for comment upon it by Vulcanius, who edited the Etymologies in 1577.