Note 414 — CANES VENATICI. Class III.
William Dansey translation
H. Stephani Schediasm. L. iv. 1.
The etymology of this harsh-sounding term is more readily elucidated by tracing it in the Celtic, than in the Latin language; from the latter of which Henry Stephens, on the authority of Turnebus, attempts a fanciful derivation. “Vertragus—Fertragus—Fertrahus—ex eo nimirùm quòd feram trahat ad dominum, literâ g locum literæ h accipiente, sicut tragulam nomen à trahendo habere grammatici affirmant.” He does not, however, attach much faith to the derivation, though favoured by Martial’s Epigram,
Martial. Epig. L. xiv. Ep. 200.
Non sibi sed domino venatur Vertragus acer, Illæsum leporem qui tibi dente feret;
Adr. Turnebi Adversar. L. xviii. c. i.
and Turnebus himself, when proposing it, says “Scio ego jocularem istam visum iri audaciam, et risus excitaturam.” Ridiculous enough assuredly it is! The greyhound very rarely brings the hare to his keeper, often devours it—besides, the bearing of his game to his master is not peculiar to this dog, Oppian mentioning the same quality in the Ἀγασσεύς—
Cyneg. L. i. vs. 524.
καὶ γενύεσσιν ἑλὼν φόρτον μέγαν ἀντιάσειεν, ὦκα φέροι μογέων τε, βαρυνόμενος τε πελάζοι.
Seeing that this derivation could not be upheld, young Gerard Vossius endeavours to adapt his etymology to the little light which Arrian himself throws upon the name, deriving it from veertigh or veerdigh, nimble. But we shall approach nearer to the true root by referring to the passage of Gratius, in which the same dog is mentioned under the title of Vertraha;
Gratii Cyneg. vs. 199.
At te leve si quà Tangit opus, pavidosque juvat compellere dorcas, Aut versuta sequi leporis vestigia parvi: Petronios, scit fama, canes, volucresque Sicambros, Et pictam maculâ Vertraham delige falsâ. Ocyor affectu mentis pinnâque cucurrit, Sed premit inventas, non inventura latentes Illa feras.
Spelman, citing this passage, reads Veltrahum, and gives many synonyms of the same in the column of his Gloss. Arch. ‘de Canibus Veterum’—but all more or less corrupt. The correct term would be Veltracha, which has been changed to Veltrachus, Vertrachus, Vertragus, in which last form it is found in our readings of Arrian—Οὐέρτραγος. Du Cange suggests Velt-jaghere, campestris Venator, ex velt campus, and jaghere venator, as another probable source of Veltragus or Vertragus. See his Glossary, in voce.
The reader need not be informed, that in the term Οὐέρτραγος Arrian employs the Greek οὐ, as the nearest approach to the initial V—whether using the digamma (the V of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the F of Dr. Marsh) as his prefixture, I leave to others to determine.