The Etymologies

The word “amicus” — meaning “friend” — comes from a derivation, as if it were “animi custos”, or “guardian of the soul”. And this is well put! The term for someone tormented by carnal desire is “amator turpitudinis”, a lover of wickedness. But “friend”, “amicus”, is from the word “hamus”, a hook — in other words, the chain of charity, since hooks hold on.

The Etymologies , by the seventh-century polymath and theologian Isidore of Seville, is a massive medieval encyclopedia, with sections devoted to topics from grammar to farming, mathematics to war. And throughout the book, Isidore attempts to understand the world through etymology—that is, by poking and prodding at words until they reveal their histories and the other words that they’re made of. Chris and Suzanne revel in Isidore’s ear for the materiality of language, as well as his encyclopedic impulse to gather and organize everything.

Show Notes.

Isidore of Seville: The Etymologies. [Bookshop.] [The text in Latin.]

The only other book by Isidore available in English translation seems to be On the Nature of Things.

Our episodes on the Hereford Mappa Mundi, The Aeneid, Beyond a Boundary, Gertrude Stein, and Georges Perec.

Petrus Riga’s Aurora does not seem to be available in English translation.

The Latin text of the opening quote:

> Amicus, per derivationem, quasi animi custos. Dictus autem proprie: amator turpitudinis, quia amore torquetur libidinis: amicus ab hamo, id est, a catena caritatis; unde et hami quod teneant.

Suzanne wrote about encyclopedism (and Moby-Dick, naturally) for LitHub.

The Glossa Ordinaria.

The First Grammatical Treatise.

Virgilius Maro Grammaticus.

Next: Nezami Ganjavi: Layla and Majnun. [Bookshop.]

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