This miniscor is noted by Festus. New proof of the verb meno conjectured by me elsewhere [→Z 3691, 3710, 3726, 3960]. It would show however that it was pronounced mino not meno. But perhaps Festus deduced miniscor only conjecturally from reminiscor (see Forcellini), where the e has to be changed to i for the composition, and so too in comminiscor, etc. If there was a simple inchoative from meno, I would think this would have to have been a meniscor and not miniscor. (15 Dec. 1823.) It is true however that I perhaps have no reason at all to say meno rather than mino. Memini could be from meno (as cecidi from caedo, etc.) and equally from mino. But also commentus (which could easily be from commino, but from a commino formed from meno, which in the participle recovers its vowel, as contineo–contentum from teneo not tineo, etc.) and memento, etc., seem to demonstrate a meno. Memento, etc., appears to demonstrate a memeno through reduplication about which pp. 3940–41, etc., and elsewhere [→Z 2774, 2811]. Or perhaps it is formed anomalously from memini after the loss of the other tenses, etc., and the present use of this perfect came to be the first part and stem of the verb; or perhaps also earlier. (15 Dec. 1823.)
Bito is [to go], on which elsewhere [→Z 3694, 3710–11, 3828–29]. See Forcellini under Combitere. (15 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3939, end. The supine is from the perfect as I prove elsewhere [→Z 3723–24]. But pingo, fingo, mingo, etc., produce pinxi, etc. (and not otherwise); therefore their true supine is pinctum, etc. Mingo [to urinate] truly has mictum.1 mungo [to blow the nose], pungo [to prick], fungo [to perform an office], iungo [to join], etc. –nctum. At least Forcellini so indicates. See there however the variant reading in the example from Caius Titius, and the compounds of mingo, and the derivations [3987] from its supine such as minctio, etc. So too the compounds of pingo fingo, etc., and their derivatives, etc. (15 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3971. But that pagella, e.g., and catella and similar are contractions of catenulella, paginulella (though catenula and paginula exist) and similar, does not seem to me credible; but rather of paginella, catenella, etc., or even of paginula, catenula, etc. And then what reason is there to say that the diminutive in ellus, etc., can only be formed from words in ulus, etc.? Perhaps that diminution in ellus, etc., can only be a supradiminutive? But from tabula, fabula, etc., which are not diminutives, although in ul, are formed tabella, fabella, etc., which are not supradiminutives but simple diminutives. Or perhaps we would like to argue that tabella, etc., is a contraction of tabululella, etc. On the contrary one often says ellulus as asellulus, catellulus, etc. Now would these then be contractions of asinulellulus, catululellulus, that is repetitions of the ul, and triple diminutives? Tenellulus. See pp. 3753, 3901, 3992, 3994. Agellulus. Impossible: rather a contraction of tabellula, like pagella of paginella, etc. (15 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3235. Metior or metio [to measure] (note that this is a verb of the fourth and not of the 3rd conjugation). —metor aris and meto as, castrametari [to pitch camp], etc. (16 Dec. 1823.)
Sella which I have counted elsewhere [→Z 3687] among the positivized diminutives, is not properly so, if it comes from sedes, because it has a sense which is much more special than this, although it too is very extensive and varied. (16 Dec. 1823.)
On the topic of the rough breathing of the Greeks changing to s [→Z 1127, 2195–96], etc., one can note the Spanish sombra (with its derivations) that is ombra from umbra [shadow]. Perhaps the French sombre also belongs here. See the Glossary, etc. etc. (16 Dec. 1823.)
[3988] The beautiful not absolute. The Greeks and Romans (were they nations of good taste?) prized, at least in women, the low forehead, and considered the high to be defective, so that women used to cover it up, etc. See De Rogati’s notes to his translation of Anacreon, ode 29, on Bathyllus.1 On covering or showing the forehead both of which have such a great part in differentiating physiognomies, neither the ancients nor the moderns, nor today’s fashion is ever in agreement with itself. There is no doubt that the nation of whom Hippocrates speaks (see p. 3961), accustomed only to seeing long heads, though such things are against nature, would nevertheless have and will have felt a very remarkable sense of monstrosity and ugliness, irresistible from their point of view, every time they saw heads which were, I do not say flat, but average, etc. You can say the same about the other barbarians on whom p. 3962. And the same can be said of a hundred thousand other practices which are against nature, savage or civilized, ancient (Greek, Roman, etc.) or modern, etc., which relate to the configuration of the human body whether real or apparent (such as that of farthingales, etc. [→Z 1078]). (16 Dec. 1823.)
The v is only an aspiration, etc. On the Aeolian Digamma see Weller’s Grammar, Leipzig 1756, p. 65. —It is the practice in Italian to omit or add v in nouns, and especially in adjectives in ío. So too in Latin: e.g., see Forcellini under Dium. And divus must certainly come from δῖος [heavenly]; and see Forcellini under Divus. In saying ío or ivo very often both the written language varies from itself (natio–nativo), and also the vulgar differs from the written (stantio [stale], vulgar stantivo, and vice versa in other cases) and from itself, and also written or spoken Italian or both differ from other languages, both from Latin or from the original of the respective word (joli–giulivo for giulío, which [3989] was also said in ancient times, today is completely lost) and from others (rétif–rétive–restio), and vice versa they differ from our language, and between themselves, and within themselves, etc. (16 Dec. 1823.)
“Si dans un pays on pouvait découvrir tous les talens que la nature se plait à distribuer au hasard, et qu’on pût employer chacun dans son genre, ce pays deviendrait bientôt le premier de l’Europe. Mais que de sagacité, de soins infinis et de patience faudrait-il pour de telles découvertes? Le Fatum s’est réservé la direction de nos destinées. À bien examiner la chose, nous y avons moins de part que notre orgueil ne nous en attribue” [“If in a country one could discover all the talents which nature is pleased to distribute at random, and one could employ each in its own way, this country would soon become the first in Europe. But what wisdom, what infinite attention and patience would be needed for such discoveries? Fate has kept for itself the direction of our destinies. If we examine the matter carefully, we have a smaller share in it than our pride leads us to believe”]. Lettres du Roi de Prusse et de M. d’Alembert, Lettre 188, from the King.1 (16 Dec. 1823.)
Sculpter from sculpto–ptum. (16 Dec. 1823.)
Positivized diminutives. Ungula [hoof] (whence unghia, ongle, and not from unguis [nail, hoof]): see however Forcellini under Unguis. As for unghia it is certain that it is positivized. For ongle too it is certain that it is equivalent to the Latin positive unguis; but I do not think to ungula which in French is corne. (17 Dec. 1823.) See also the derivatives, etc., of ungula, unghia, ongle.
For p. 3979, end. So verbs (such as τεθνήκω [to die], etc.) or nouns (such as κεκρύφαλος [hairnet], etc.) or other words formed from perfects, for the most part and regularly have in their duplication ε not ι, depending on the form of the perfect from which they are formed. (17 Dec. 1823.)
[3990] For p. 3977. It is enough to note the infinite circumstances, qualities, etc. etc., of the person, in both the physical and the moral aspect, of the climate, of the year, of the season, of events, etc. etc., which good true doctors and in particular Hippocrates prescribe in many places should be observed in each illness and in each ill person, to be able to come to a correct assessment, and apply the remedy, whose effect each of the circumstances mentioned, albeit very small, if poorly observed, etc., could hinder or render harmful, etc., and likewise falsify in fact the assessment of the illness, the prognostication of its effects and outcomes, etc. etc.1 (17 Dec. 1823.)
Everything is madness in this world except being mad. Everything is worthy of being laughed at except laughing at everything. Everything is vanity except fine illusions and pleasurable frivolities.2 (17 Dec. 1823.)
Teschio [skull] is certainly nothing other than a testulum or testulus from testa for head, with
as usual the ul changed to i, and the t to ch as is a property of our language, especially ancient and Tuscan which says for example schiantare and stiantare [to smash], schiacciare and stiacciare [to crush], and mastio for maschio [male] (changing in the opposite way ch to t), etc. etc. Just as from vetulus, vecchio [old], on which elsewhere,a so from testulum teschio; and if vecchio is from a veculus or a contraction of vetusculus, etc. (and so too viejo, vieil), in the same way from testa could have been formed tesculum (as from veTus veCulus) or teschio could be a contraction of testiculum, etc. Testula exists from testa feminine. Now there is also testum and [3991] testu neuter. See Forcellini. And for the Latin testa we say testo masculine. See the Glossary, French, Spanish, etc. The word teschio seems to show that the word testa in Vulgar Latin was used particularly to denote the cranium, etc., and this makes much more plausible the transfer from testa (coccia [shell]) to testa (capo) [head])1 and the analogy, etc. So vice versa the things I have said about testa, etc. [→Z 32, 3516], confirm the present ones. From teschio one could well reason through to testa and vice versa, since the use of diminutives in place of and in the exact sense of positives in Latin and modern languages has been demonstrated with so many examples. Teschio or testulum must at the beginning have been a mere positivized diminutive that is signifying the same as testa understood either as head or particularly as cranium, etc. Anyway on this word see the Glossary, the French and Spanish, etc. (17 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3984, end. The French also have diminutives or frequentatives in il ille iller, etc. (such as grapiller pétiller, etc. etc.), like the Spanish and the Latin catillus, pusillus, pocillum, conscribillo, sorbillo, cantillo, etc. etc. (17 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3965, margin. It should be noted that, much more ancient than Empedocles, Hippocrates, etc., Sappho and other famous writers, especially poets, wrote in their native dialects which were different from Ionic. It shows therefore that it was not Homer, but the preeminent civilization, culture (of which clear sign is given by the topics and the style and the language of the odes of Anacreon, who was very much younger, to say the least, than Sappho), commerce, wealth, luxury, comfort, etc., and therefore arts, occupations, sciences, fine arts, see p. 3995, literature, etc., of the Ionians that made their dialect common. This came about long after Homer, and after [3992] literature had already spread throughout Greece, and in various dialects, and other dialects had been applied properly and integrally (not mixed up with others, as in Homer) to literature, at least in poetry. Herodotus was an approximate contemporary of Hippocrates. (18 Dec. 1823.) Simonides was a near contemporary of Anacreon, says Fabricius,1 who wrote in Doric. See his fragments, and more Ionic will be found there than Doric. In particular, his iambic verses and some other fragments are entirely Ionic or common, that is Attic: partly one, partly the other. Since however Simonides wrote for money in praise of this person or that (see Fabricius), it is natural that in such cases he followed the dialects of the people who paid him. And so his epigrams, composed also for payment or for particular cases and places, etc., perhaps were also, and are now found in Doric, and so with other fragments. See p. 3997.
For p. 3969, margin. Our diminution in olo olare, etc., uolo, etc., and the Latin in olus, etc. (filiolus, vinolentus, vinolentia, etc. etc., for filiulus, vinulentus, etc., see p. 3955), are the same as the one in ulus ulare, etc. Usual interchange of u and o (such as volgus–vulgus, etc.) of which I have spoken in a thousand places [→Z 2195, 2325–26, 3574, 3701]. (18 Dec. 1823.)
Lusito [to play] from ludo–lusum [to play]. (19 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3901. Contractions, I mean, from lapidillus and similar. Vetulus could be for veterulus, (for this word see p. 3990, etc.). Puellus [little boy] (agellus [small field], etc.) is perhaps a contraction of puerulus, which indeed exists, formed from the genitive like other nouns or words which come from nouns of the second declension. Nigellus [somewhat black] could be for nigerulus from the genitive nigeri, not from niger. Tenellus [somewhat tender] (misellus [wretched], etc.) for tenerulus from the genitive teneri, not from tener, etc. etc. See pp. 3963, 3968, 3971, 3987. (19 Dec. 1823.) See p. 3994.
Positivized diminutives. Mulet from mulus [mule]. In the feminine mule. (19 Dec. 1823.)
Passive participles in a neuter or active sense. Avvertito for avvisato, accorto [wary], avvertente from avvertire in the sense of to pay attention to something. So too advertido in Spanish where I believe that advertir has also this meaning which it has with us. This is the case: advertid que, etc. Don Quixote. I also believe that avvertito in the sense mentioned is taken from Spanish, to which the use of such passive participles in these active or neuter senses, etc., is much more proper. I find advertido taken in this way in Don Quixote. Avisé. See the Dictionaries. Saputo [well-informed], Saputello [know-all], etc. See the Crusca and the Spanish. [3993] (19 Dec. 1823.)
“Il me semble que l’homme est plutôt fait pour agir que pour connaître” [“It seems to me that man is made to act rather than to know”] Lettres du Roi de Prusse et de M. d’Alembert, Lettre 237, from the King.1 (19 Dec. 1823.)
To what is said elsewhere [→Z 3694] about positivized diminutives of acus [needle], add aiguillon which grammatically is a supradiminutive, and corresponds to the simple diminutive aculeus. Both however differ in meaning from the positive. Besides aiguille originally and materially is the same as aculeus. (19 Dec. 1823.)
Positivized diminutives. Poisson from piscis for poisse [fish]. (20 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3636. Note that in French there are many diminutives of this sort, positivized, etc., not only in eau, or in el elle, or in et ette (noisette [hazelnut], etc. etc.) or in in ine (médecin), see p. 3995, paragraph 1, beginning and in the margin, etc. etc. etc., but in on,a ot ote, otte, etc. For example oignon must have been originally a diminutive. (20 Dec. 1823.) See the end of the following thought.
For p. 3969, end. However the diminution in short olo, in nouns, does not seem proper to Italian. But there are many examples of words which cannot possibly be Latin, or there is no reason to believe that they are. Zufolo [flute, whistle], cicciolo [crackling], sdrucciolo [steep slope], gomitolo [ball of yarn], etc. etc. In verbs then that diminution is absolutely Italian. (I say diminution, though it sometimes has a diminutive sense, sometimes frequentative, etc.) Sventolare [to wave] which gives io svéntolo, tu svéntoli, etc. In fact all our diminutives or frequentatives, etc., in olare, seem to me to be in short ol. Besides it seems to me that in French too the desinence in ol [3994] ole, oler, etc., is not infrequently diminutive or frequentative or pejorative, etc. Prestolet (a priestling) from prestre. Babiole [trinket], etc. (20 Dec. 1823.) See below.
For p. 3992. Nigellus (and so all other similar) is from nigri for nigrellus, like flabellum, flagellum, lucellum from flabrum, flagrum, lucrum. Labrum–labellum, monstrum–mostellum, tenebrae–tenebellae (Claudianus Mamertus). Though it is possible that nigri is a contraction of nigeri, and therefore in this respect perhaps nigellus also from nigerellus, and similar. Tenellus is certainly for tenerellus, puer for puerellus and similar, with the r suppressed as in flabellum, etc. (20 Dec. 1823.)
For p. 3979, end. Duplication of the type of that of κάρχαρος [jagged] (except that here there is an extra ρ) is very common in Greek and it is formed by doubling the first syllable of the word, that is the first consonant and the first vowel whichever it is, and perhaps also another consonant before or after that vowel, if the first syllable of the word has more consonants, etc. If the consonant is aspirated, it is substituted in the added syllable by the corresponding nonaspirated consonant. If the word begins with a vowel, even pure, the first vowel and the first consonant are repeated, even if this belongs to another syllable. See Scapula under ἀλαλή [alala, a loud cry]. Or else the ε or the α change to η, the o to ω, etc. etc. etc. (20 Dec. 1823.)
For the last thought on the preceding page. Then especially proper to Italian is the desinence in short olo, etc., when this is frequentative or frequentative-diminutive as in trottola [spin
ning top], etc. In such cases there is no desinence in ólo nor in uólo, etc. [3995] (20 Dec. 1823.) See p. 4000, end.
Positivized diminutives. Comignolo [chimney pot] almost culminulus. See the Glossary, etc. Colmigno is either a corruption of culmine (which we also have, but it is a word used in writing), or of culminulus, or an apocopation of colmignolo, which was then corrupted into comignolo, etc. (20 Dec. 1823.) Capitulum, capitulo, capitolo, chapitre (in the sense of chapter in a book), even if it wasn’t so at the beginning, today mean the same as caput, capo in the same sense, for which in French and Spanish the positive no longer survives (but take a look at the Dictionaries anyway). (20 Dec. 1823.)
Positivized diminutives. Médecin in French. I doubt however whether in French the desinence in in ine, etc., has now or has ever had in any way the force of a diminutive. See p. 3993, paragraph 1, margin. Fiaccola [torch] almost facula from fax [torch]. See the Glossary under facula and the Crusca under facella. Faccellina means pretty much the same as fascina [torch]. Falcola and falcolotto [candle] (which Monti in the Proposta condemns as unheard of,1 but which are very frequent in the Marche, as they must also be in Tuscany, because the Crusca gives them without any example, and they also have a proper sense which cannot be totally merged with that of candela) are corruptions of facula, but do not have exactly the sense of the positive, but more restricted, and they also indicate something small with respect to faci [torches] made of wood, etc. (see Forcellini under fax), since falcola is only of wax. (21 Dec. 1823.)
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