Sufrido for sofferente [suffering]. (20 Jan. 1824.)
Positivized diminutives. Gragnuola [hail]. See Crusca, French, Spanish, Glossary, Forcellini, etc. (20 Jan. 1824.)
A fishmonger, with a basket of fish on his head, was passing a row of trees beside the road, and one of his fish was skewered by an overhanging branch of an elm tree. “Piscium et summa genus haesit ulmo” [“and the race of fishes was entangled in the elm-tree tops”].6 There we are, the miracle occurs again, or the impossible is proved possible, on which see Archilochus in Stobaeus in the chapter on hope.7 (20 Jan. 1824.)
[4020] To what was said elsewhere [→Z 3987] about metari [to measure] add immetatus [unmeasured]. (21 Jan. 1824.)
On the difference in natural and artificial terms of what is judged tasteful and beautiful in various nations and ages, in the arts, in literature, in aspects of the body, etc. etc., see the first chapter of Voltaire’s Essay on epic poetry, in his translated works published in Venice by Milocco dated London 1760 (three volumes), vol. 2, beginning.1 (21 Jan. 1824.)
Grecism. “Soplandole, le ponía” (that is le hazia, he made him) “redondo como una pelota” [“By blowing, he made him as round as a ball”], Cervantes, “Prologo al letor” of the second part of Don Quixote, p. 3.2 A phrase familiar to the Spanish and entirely Greek. In Latin ponere for efformare [to cause to become] is not used with a double accusative, that is a noun or a pronoun, etc., and an adjective, and is not equivalent to rendere, far divenire, although it has some connection with this kind of meaning and the use of the Greek τίθημι [to put], and moreover it is a phrase taken directly from the Greek and copied, whereas the Spanish phrase is vulgar and is certainly not copied from the Greek. (21 Jan. 1824.)
Greek positivized diminutives. μηρίον for μηρός [thigh]. Note that it is found in Homer and Hesiod3 (that is, it is very ancient, or Ionic, as mentioned elsewhere [→Z 961, 3012–14, 3041ff.]) from whom, as is his habit, Lucian takes it in Prometheus sive Caucasus, Opera, 1687, Amsterdam, tome 1, p. 183, and De sacrificiis, p. 363. (21 Jan. 1824.)
Positivized diminutives. See Forcellini on Spatha, spatula, spathalium [spatula], Scapula on σπάθη, σπαθίον, σπαθὶς [flat blade], etc., the Crusca on spatola, spazzola [brush], etc., the Glossary, the French, the Spanish dictionaries. (21 Jan. 1824.)
Concerning Latin fusa [spindles] I noted elsewhere [→Z 1180–82, 3978] the plural loci and loca [places] and the like. From *“μηρὸς [thigh], plural μηροὶ and μηρὰ in the poets through metaplasm”* says Scapula. And similarly several other plurals, Greek, either having a double plural (be it neuter and masculine, or feminine and masculine, etc.) or with a different gender from the singular, etc., on which see the grammarians. (21 Jan. 1824.) Loca in Latin from the singular locus is found in prose writers too.
[4021] Κακοδαίμων [possessed by an evil genius] meaning one who has the gods as enemies, mentioned elsewhere [→Z 3343]. Lucian, De sacrificiis, tome 1, p. 362, beginning. (21 Jan. 1824.)
Figliuolo for figlio [son], positivized diminutive or term of endearment, mentioned elsewhere [→Z 2864, 3811, 3968–69]. I think that in Greek too you sometimes say τεκνίον [child] with no intention of using either a diminutive or term of endearment.
Desapercebido for isprovvisto, imprudens [imprudent]. Cervantes, Don Quixote, part 2, ch. 1, p. 4, Madrid. See what I said elsewhere about apercebido [→Z 4005]. And the same may be said about other similar participles which have such meanings with the addition of des as well, etc., privative in Spanish, of in, etc., in Italian, etc. etc. (22 Jan. 1824.)
Rinnovellare, innovellare, renouveler [to renew], renovello, Latin (see the Spanish dictionaries), etc., positivized diminutives; they may be added to what I said elsewhere about novellus [sweet young], etc. [→Z 3751] (22 Jan. 1824.)
To know how to achieve style and to write well immense hard work is needed, but once you know how, just as much hard work is still required to achieve it. And knowing how to is so far from removing the hard work from doing it, that in fact, the more you know how to, the more effort there is in writing, since you want to and can write better, which proportionately costs so much more. Likewise in the fine arts and intellectual work of other kinds.1 (23 Jan. 1824.) It is not the same as far as invention is concerned, in both writing and the fine arts, etc. etc.
Fora plural of foro (foramen) [opening]. (23 Jan. 1824.)
Pleasure of life. A statue, a painting, etc., with a lively, definite, and bold gesture, bearing, movement, even if the latter is not beautiful, nor the former well executed, always attracts the eye to it, even in a gallery where there are a thousand other works, and delights us, at least at first sight, more than all those others, if they represent an attitude of repose, etc., albeit perfectly executed. And if both are of equal perfection, the first kind, and later on too, delights us more than these others. [4022] Staël in Corinne does not think so where she claims that the figure in repose is a right and proper subject for painting and sculpture, but she is mistaken, as experience tells us, etc. etc.1 (24 Jan. 1824.)
See p. 4017. “῾Ο δὲ μάγος ἐν τοσούτῳ” (meanwhile), “δᾷδα καιομένην ἔχων” [“The magus, meanwhile, holding a lighted torch”], etc. Lucian, in Necyomantia, tome 1, p. 331. (25 Jan., Sunday, 1824.)
Spanish compounds. Cariredondo (facciatonda) [round-faced]. Don Quixote, part 2, ch. 3, beginning. (25 Jan., Sunday, 1824.)
Spanish bobo [silly] with its derivatives can be added, if need be, to what I said elsewhere [→Z 2703–705, 2811–13] about baubari [to bark gently], etc. (26 Jan. 1824.)
The passive participles of active and neuter verbs used in modern languages in an active or neuter sense, mostly if not always for the active verbs, and often for the neuter ones in Italian, and especially in Spanish, etc., are not past in meaning, but present or signifying the habitual action of what is signified by the verb. So bien hablado [well spoken] (Don Quixote, part 2, ch. 7, beginning) for buen hablador [good speaker], etc. So errato, errado for errante [wandering], mentioned elsewhere [→Z 4015]. Sudato for sudante [sweaty], etc. So pesado for pesante [heavy]. And there are many other neuter participles, mostly Spanish, which because they have this quality of meaning present or habitual action, etc., merit consideration, since passive participles of neuter verbs with a past meaning, like caduto [fallen], morto [dead], etc., are regular, common, and infinite in number both in Spanish and in Italian and French, etc. (26 Jan. 1824), as I say elsewhere [→Z 3702].
To what I said elsewhere [→Z 2820–21] about excito, suscito [to rouse up], etc., in several places, add in Forcellini Procitant and Procitare. (26 Jan. 1824.)
French supradiminutive. Feuilleton (leaflet). (27 Jan. 1824.)
Italian frequentatives or diminutives or frequentative-diminutives or positivized diminutives. Rinfocolare. Rinfocolamento, from rinfocare [to rekindle], etc. (27 Jan. 1824.)
[4023] There was a man who used to say that when he was young and first went out into the world his intention was never to flatter anyone. But, he went on, he was quickly deterred from his resolution because, having spent some time never praising anyone or anything, and seeing that he would never find anything to praise if he was to persevere with his plan, he feared he would forget through lack of practice that part of rhetoric that deals with encomia. And this, since he was fresh from his studies, he was concerned should not happen, for he was anxious to keep practicing everything he had recently learned.1 (27 Jan. 1824.)
To Mai’s observation [→Z 2657] on the way in which gn is written in codices to indicate that the Spanish, German pronunciation is more authentic, etc., that is, g-n, than the Italian, let it be noted, in addition to what I said elsewhere [→Z 1342–44], that many Latin words or derivatives from Latin that have gn in Latin, are written ñ in Spanish, that is they are pronounced gn in the Italian way, as I think I said elsewhere [→Z 3695, 3754] using the example cuñado (cognatus) [brother-in-law], to which may be added feminine leña
(ligna) [firewood], unless such words are taken into Spanish from Italian and French rather than directly from Latin from which they come originally. Indeed we do say for example feminine legna in the Spanish sense, and it is our own word (lignum [wood] is said in Spanish in another way, that is madera, etc., as in French bois, etc.) and cuñado has the Italian sense of the brother or the sister of wife or of husband, etc. And it should be noted that perhaps most Spanish words deriving from Latin and that in Latin have gn, are written in Spanish gn, pronounced g-n, like digno [worthy], ignorante [ignorant], magnifico [magnificent] (however tamaño [so much] and quamaño [as much as], etc. etc.) or indeed single n through ellipsis of the n, which indicates the ancient pronunciation in Spanish of those words had been g-n and not like [4024] Italian. (28 Jan. 1824.) Does señal [sign] with its derivatives, etc., come from Latin or Italian?
Frequentative or positivized diminutive, etc. Modulor [to measure] from modus [measure], unless this and other similar verbs, like nidulor [to nest] mentioned elsewhere [→Z 3756], come from a nondiminutive form in ul, like iaculus [what is thrown], speculum [mirror], etc., from which come iaculor [to throw], speculor [to watch], etc., but modulor would actually come from modus, of which I know no other example, if modulor is a nondiminutive form, and likewise nidulor, etc., and if they are from modulus [small measure], nidulus [little nest], etc. (see Forcellini), in that case they are positivized diminutives or rather frequentatives. (29 Jan. 1824.)
“Our explorers have collected a dictionary of their words” (of the Eskimos, a people near Greenland, “the least stupid of all the savages of the North”), “amounting to more than five hundred. As far as numbers are concerned their knowledge is very limited.” News of the second voyage (1821–1823) and return of Captain Parry, taken from the London Literary Gazette of 25 Oct. and 1 Nov. 1823, in the Antologia of Florence, no. 36, p. 120.1 (29 Jan. 1824.)
Dice [they say] for dicono, or else for un dice (on that is un dit), l’uom dice; alcun dice (as good authors write with the same sense), altri dice, la persona dice (Passavanti uses la persona in this sense), la gente dice (good authors), si dice [they say]; in which case it would be an ellipsis, as also in Greek φησὶ, etc., for φασὶ [they say], would be an ellipsis of φησὶ τὶς, etc., mentioned elsewhere [→Z 2676–77]. See p. 4026, paragraph 5. Cervantes in Don Quixote, part 1, ch. 50, Amberes or Antwerp edition, 1697, p. 584, tome 1, l. 4, before the end, where one reads dizen, my Madrid edition has dice. (30 Jan. 1824.) See p. 4026.
To what I said elsewhere [→Z 1109, 2194] about despertar [to wake up] add that the Spanish have as well the adjective despierto that is experrectus [awake]. (31 Jan. 1824.)
Men who are by nature, custom, or circumstance and occasion cheerful are generally inclined to give assistance or charity or to show compassion, [4025] and melancholic men the opposite, or certainly less. I said as much at great length elsewhere [→Z 69–70, 255]. (31 Jan. 1824.)
What is more unnatural than for mothers not to breast-feed their own children? Yet thousands of experiences tell us that women who are nurtured in civilized society very rarely have the strength to bear the physical strain of breast-feeding without great detriment to their health, and even danger to their life. Which is the same to them as being unable to give birth to a child. And this custom is very ancient (I think), ever since noble or wealthy women started leading sedentary and untroubled lives. You may gather from this whether the civilized state benefits man.1 (1 Feb. 1824.)
Abbraciare [to reduce to embers], bragia, brage, brace [embers], etc., with their derivatives (and see the French, Spanish dictionaries, Forcellini, Glossary) may be added to what I said elsewhere [→Z 3064–65] about the letters br common in our languages in words signifying burning, etc. (2 Feb., Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1824.)
For p. 4017. See as well Guicciardini, bk. 3, p. 271, on the emperor Maximilian in whom the desire to fight against the Infidels seems to have been simply a pretext, and shows that this pretext or whatever was said at the time and in similar times was one of those political or diplomatic expedients, a commonplace, frequent and acceptable in all the courts or with Christian princes and with all Christian peoples. (2 Feb., Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1824.) See p. 4044.
Altro for niuno, etc., as elsewhere [→Z 3587]. Guicciardini, 1, 274, Freiburg ed., bk. 3, “senza cercare altra risposta” for senza più cercare la risposta [without looking further for any reply]. (2 Feb., Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1824.)
Divisato for deguisé [disguised], mentioned elsewhere [→Z 3005]. See the Crusca under dissimigliato, first example. (2 Feb., Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1824.) Divisar for to see, to discern, to catch sight of. —Don Quixote.
[4026] For p. 4024. Also φασὶ, aiunt, dicen, dicono [they say], narrano [they tell], vogliono [they want], credono [they believe], etc. etc., is an absolute ellipsis of the same nouns and pronouns mentioned above, or other ones, similar or different, in the plural. (6 Feb. 1824.)
Αὐτίκα used in a similar way to Spanish luego [straighaway] mentioned elsewhere [→Z 2865–66]. See Plato in Phaedrus, Opera, ed. Ast, tome 1, p. 144e.1 (4 Feb. 1824.)
Positivized diminutives. Gergo–jargon. See the Spanish, etc. (7 Feb. 1824.)
Nascere [to be born] for γενέσθαι [to become, to happen], mentioned elsewhere [→Z 4016]. See Guicciardini, Freiburg ed., tome 1, p. 339, line 5 to end. (7 Feb. 1824.)
Altro for niuno [no one] mentioned elsewhere [→Z 3587]. See the same, ibid., p. 340, line 13. (7 Feb. 1824.) And note our use of the singular pronoun altri [someone] and on its meaning see p. 4024, paragraph 3, a meaning which is relevant here, and is also sometimes used by the French, who say for example (I think in familiar language or in jest) comme dit l’autre [as they say], speaking, e.g., about a proverb, etc., that is, comme on dit. See the French and Spanish dictionaries. (9 Feb. 1824.)
Excessive power of attention is at the same time and in itself, power of distraction, because every object easily and powerfully captures the attention, taking it away from other objects, and attention is divided. So it is also, in itself, impotence or difficulty of attention, and facility of attention, both its direct opposites, and it seems impossible that it is both at the same time, but excess is the father of nothing, or turns into its opposite, as mentioned elsewhere [→Z 714–17, 1176–79, 1260–62, 1653–54, 1776–77, 2274–75, 2478, 3950–51]. For that reason a lack of concentration occurs mainly in children, etc. etc.2 (9 Feb. 1824.)
I say elsewhere (p. 2827), that a change in the pronunciation of the Greek language in later centuries, by altering its harmony, must necessarily have altered its construction, order, and nature, etc., since the same period or construction differently [4027] pronounced either no longer had any harmony, or certainly did not have the same as before. Add that, quite apart from this, prose writers, and also Greek poets of later centuries (like the Romans, the Italians, and everyone else in periods of decadence in taste and literature) liked and wanted a harmony different in itself, both absolutely and in so far as it was harmony, from that of the ancients, which is to say sonorous, loud, brazen, uniform, rhythmic, etc. Experts recognize it immediately in all or almost all the prose writers and poets of the centuries mentioned, even the best ones, and Atticists too, who modeled themselves on the ancients, imitators, etc. So much so that this rhythm, which is different from the ancient one of the kind mentioned and is recognized in almost all of them, more or less, or more or less frequently, is a sure sign, and one of the main and most evident signs, at least to a real expert, of distinguishing imitators and more recent writers and poets, who actually often correspond curiously to the ancient ones, from the classic writers and poets of the best periods of Greek literature. Now different tastes in harmony and rhythm in prose and verse (to which add new meters, occasioned by a change in taste and changes in the pronunciation of the language) contributed a good deal to altering the constru
ction and order of the language, even in careful and archaizing writers, a necessary consequence, as can be seen by considering the matter carefully, for example in Longinus. Because quite often you find in ancient words a construction which is not ancient, and you realize it is formed because of the rhythm that comes from it, which otherwise would not have come from it, and anyway is not ancient. (The same may be said about any alterations in construction, etc., because of changes in pronunciation.) This cause of corruption can be included among others which produced and do universally produce the alteration and corruption of all languages, in all (or nearly all) of which, ages of false and inferior taste assumed a rhythm corresponding to the one described above and different from that of their ancient writers and poets. One [4028] can distinguish right away and have no doubt (at least anyone with understanding and experience can), by the difference and by the kind of rhythm mentioned, a writer of the 17th century from one of the 16th, even if the former is one of the best, and corresponds in all other respects to the ancients. Pallavicino, excellent in nearly every other sense, commits the greatest sins through the brazenness and uniformity (real or apparent, as I say elsewhere [→Z 3822–23]) of his rhythm, by which you recognize his style immediately, and it is distinguishable mainly on that account (as far as the outside is concerned at least, leaving aside the antitheses and second-rate conceits which have to do more with the pronouncements and conceits, as they are in fact called) from our ancients, whom he studied so much and expressed and imitated so well.1 What might I say about the rhythms of Apuleius, Petronius, etc., compared with those of Cicero and Livy? Not to mention Caesar, and the most ancient and simple writers, who Cicero in the Orator2 says all have no rhythm and he means the rhythm of more refined writers, because with no rhythm at all they cannot exist. See the following page. What might I say about Lucan, about the author of the Moretum, Statius, etc., compared with Virgil? Martial compared with Catullus, etc.? Now this change and corruption of rhythm must necessarily have been one of the major causes of alteration of language, in Greek, and Latin and Italian, etc., as well, mainly with respect to their construction and order, and therefore to phrase and phrases, and therefore to their nature, in short to the essentials. Also simple words must have been corrupted to serve the rhythm, and to titillate ears eager for new and arresting sounds, either by deforming the old words, or forming new and strange versions of them, or by making compound words out of them, as in Greek, or cutting them short as we do (the use of apocopated forms is characteristic of Pallavicini, and 17th-century writers and more modern writers after them), both with regard to the sound of the word itself and its effect in the composition and in the sentence. (9 Feb. 1824.) See what I said elsewhere [→Z 848–49] on some forced constructions of Isocrates in order to avoid the combination (conflict) of vowels, etc. etc. (9 Feb. 1824.) (Refer as well on this subject, insofar as it is relevant, to what I said elsewhere [→Z 1157–60] on the varieties of taste in the Greeks, the Romans, and Italians in different ages, about the combination, the abundance, etc., of vowels.) Now, if this happened to Isocrates, an excellent judge of such matters, who was exposed [4029] to a thousand others like himself, and who wrote to please them, at the very center of language in relation to both time and place, when both language and literature were flourishing, at their height, etc. etc., what was going to happen in later centuries in which, etc., among their imitators, etc., most of them, as it happened, were not native Greeks, but from Asia, and even upper Asia, not Asia Minor, etc. etc., many of them not even with Greek parents, like Josephus, Porphyry and so many others, etc. etc.? (10 Feb. 1824.)
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