Note 464 — MENSIS MAIUS.
Reading edition
Cp. the root cas-, which (according to Corssen, Aussprache, i. 652 note), appears both in canus and cascus, and also in the Oscan casnar = ‘an old man.’ The word casnar is used by Varro (ap. Nonium, 86) for sexagenarius, or possibly argeus: ‘Vix ecfatus erat cum more maiorum carnales (= casnales) arripiunt et de ponte deturbant.’ Cf. Varro, L. L. 7. 73; Mommsen, Unteritalische Dialekten, p. 268. The root arg may perhaps have meant holy as well as old or white, like the Welsh gwen (Rhys, Celtic Mythology, 527 note).