Note 11 — Chapter I · THEORIES OF LANGUAGE.

A good idea of the character of his etymologizing may be gathered from the following quotation:—“Vestis nomen factum est per syncopen ex composito perestis, et mutato r in s (ut sæpe factum est), pesestis sive pesestas, a verbo per-edo, per-es, per-est; quo significatur, quidquid peredit et plane consumit et perdit materiam quamque, unde facta est, ut lues illa epidemica pestis appellationem obtinuerat.” Elsewhere he asserts that sin is derived from σίνειν, while so is merely ὥς reversed. But Junius is quite equalled by Scaliger, Voss, Wachter, and other philologists of the same school. Thus Scaliger says (“De Caus.” c. 35):—“Ordinis nomen Græcum est. Dicebant militibus tribuni—‘Hactenus tibi licet; hic consistes: eò progrediere, huc revertere; ὅρον δῶ,’ inde ordo;” and again (“De Caus.” c. 28) that quatuor is κατερα, i.e. και ετερα (the aspirate being dropped as among the Æolians), because when the Latins had counted “unum, alterum, tria; pro quarto dixere et alterum.” Scaliger, again, agrees with Voss in deriving “opacus ex Ope, hoc est, terrâ; nam umbræ et frigoris captandi causa in subterraneos se specus abdebant,” and pomum from πῶμα, because most fruits quench the thirst. Voss identifies the Latin rus with the Greek ἄρουρα, “præciso a,” and declares: “ab ἔπω, qua notat operor, venit Latinum opus.” Perhaps the various etymologies proposed for the word cause by Perottus will give the best illustration of what once passed for “a true account of the origin of words.” It is either (1) from chaos, as being the first cause of things, or (2) from καῦσις, because heat “kindles and inflames us” to action, or (3) “a cavendo,” because a cause forewarns (“cavet”) us that something should or should not be done, or, finally (4), “a casu, quia causa accidit.” To these Voss adds a fresh possibility, that causa comes from “caiso,” that is, “quærere seu petere.” Perottus, again, derives “locusta ex locus et ustus, quod tactu multa urat, morsu vero omnia erodat.” We cannot but be struck by the ingenuity of these old scholars. Wachter, however, offers us equally absurd etymologies in the field of modern High German. Thus he brings kämpfen (from campus) from kam, “the fist,” cat from ge-wachten, the French guêter (!), and agrees with Clauberg in making neigen the source of nacht.