Note 752 — Chapter VI · COMITIA AND CONCILIUM

Fest. ep. 38: “Concilium dicitur a concalando, id est vocando.” It is accepted by Curtius, Griech. Etym. 139; Vaniček, Griech.-lat. etym. Wörterb. 143; Walde, Lat. etym. Wörterb. 136. But Corssen, Beitr. z. ital. Sprachk. 41 f., rejects this etymology on the ground that it does not harmonize with all the meanings of the word and of its derivative “conciliare”; also Gudeman, in Thes. ling. lat. iv. 44. Corssen, analyzing it into con-cil-iu-m, and connecting -cil- with a root kal-, “to cover,” supposes the original meaning to be simply “a joining together,” “a union,”—giving that signification which he considers primary. It is equally reasonable, however, to assume the development to be (1) “a calling together,” (2) “a meeting for consultation,” (3) “a natural union of individuals of any kind.” In the third sense it is applied perhaps figuratively to inanimate things, especially the union of atoms to form objects, by Lucretius i. 183, 484, 772, 1082; ii. 120; iii. 805; cf. Ovid, Met. i. 710.