詞源與文集 第 1 章 第 1/8 段

Isidore: Etymologies, Book I. I. ON DISCIPLINE AND ART. [1] On discipline and art. 'Discipline' (disciplina) took its name from 'learning' (discere); whence it may also be called 'knowledge' (scientia). For 'to know' (scire) is so called from 'to learn' (discere), because none of us knows except him who learns. It is called 'discipline' in another way, because it is learned in full (discitur plena). [2] 'Art' (ars), on the other hand, is so named because it consists of the precepts and rules of art (artis)

consists. Others say that this word was drawn from the Greeks—from arete (that is, from 'virtue'), which they called 'knowledge.' [3] Between art and discipline Plato and Aristotle wished there to be this difference, saying that art has to do with those things which can be otherwise than they are, whereas discipline is that which treats of things which cannot come out otherwise. For when

something is discussed by true demonstrations, it will be discipline; when something merely probable and matter of opinion is treated, it will bear the name of art. II. ON THE SEVEN LIBERAL DISCIPLINES. [1] The disciplines of the liberal arts are seven. The first is grammar, that is, skill in speaking. The second is rhetoric, which, on account of the elegance and abundance of its eloquence, is deemed especially necessary in civil

questions it is considered necessary. The third is dialectic, surnamed logic, which by the subtlest disputations separates the true from the false. [2] The fourth is arithmetic, which comprises the causes and divisions of numbers. The fifth is music, which consists in verses and songs. [3] The sixth is geometry, which embraces the measurements and dimensions of the earth. The seventh is

astronomy, which comprises the law of the stars. III. ON THE COMMON LETTERS. [1] The first beginnings of the art of grammar are the common letters, which scribes and reckoners employ. Their study is, as it were, a kind of infancy of the grammatical art; whence Varro also calls it 'lettering' (litteratio). Now letters are the tokens of things, the signs of words, in which there is such power

that the sayings of those who are absent speak to us without a voice. [For they bring in words through the eyes, not through the ears.] [2] The use of letters was devised for the remembrance of things. For, lest they slip away through forgetfulness, they are bound fast by letters. For amid so great a variety of things, neither could all be learned by hearing nor retained in memory. [3] Letters (litterae) are so called as though 'legiterae,' because they furnish a road (iter) to readers,

or because they are repeated (iterentur) in reading. [4] The Latin and Greek letters seem to have arisen from the Hebrews. For among them 'aleph' was first spoken; then, from a similar pronunciation among the Greeks, 'alpha' was derived, and thence among the Latins 'A.' For the translator, from the similar sound of the other language, fashioned the letter, so that we may know that the Hebrew tongue is the mother of all languages and

letters. But the Hebrews use twenty-two elements of letters, corresponding to the books of the Old Testament; the Greeks, however, twenty-four. The Latins, advancing between the two languages, have twenty-three elements. [5] The letters of the Hebrews began from the Law, through Moses; but those of the Syrians and Chaldeans through Abraham. Whence they too agree with the Hebrews both in number and

in sound they agree, differing only in their characters. The letters of the Egyptians were found by Queen Isis, daughter of Inachus, who, coming from Greece into Egypt, discovered them and handed them on to the Egyptians. Among the Egyptians, moreover, the priests had one set of letters and the common people another: the priestly letters were called 'hieratic,' the common ones 'demotic.' The use of Greek letters the Phoenicians first invented; whence Lucan too (3,

220): 'The Phoenicians first, if report be believed, dared to mark the abiding word in rude figures.' [6] Hence it is that the headings of books too are written in Phoenician colour (that is, in purple), because from them letters had their beginning. Cadmus, son of Agenor, first brought the Greek letters, seventeen in number, from Phoenicia into Greece: A B Γ Δ E Z I K Λ M N O Π P Σ T Φ. To these Palamedes, in the Trojan

war added three: Θ, Ξ, Χ. After him Simonides the lyric poet added three others: Ψ, Η, Ω. [7] Pythagoras of Samos was the first to form the letter Y after the pattern of human life; its lower stroke signifies the first age, uncertain indeed, and which has as yet given itself neither to vices nor to virtues. The fork, however, which is above, begins from adolescence: of which the right-hand part is steep,

but tending toward the blessed life; the left-hand part easier, but leading down to ruin and destruction. Of which Persius thus speaks (3, 56): 'And to you, where the Samian letter has spread out its branches, it has shown the rising path by its right-hand track.' [8] There are, moreover, five mystic letters among the Greeks. The first is Y, which signifies human life, of which we have just spoken. The second is Θ (theta), which [signifies] death

[it signifies death]. For the judges used to set that same letter beside the names of those whom they were condemning to punishment. And Theta is so called apo tou thanatou, that is, 'from death.' Hence too it has a dart through its middle, that is, a sign of death. Of it a certain poet says: 'O letter theta, ill-omened far beyond all others.' [9] The third letter, tau, displays by its shape the Lord's cross, whence also in Hebrew it is interpreted as 'a sign'

...is interpreted. Of it, it was said to the angel in Ezekiel (9:4): 'Pass through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a thau upon the foreheads of the men that groan and mourn.' But the two remaining letters, the highest and the last, Christ claims for himself. For he himself is the beginning, he himself the end, saying, 'I am Alpha and Omega.' For as they run together into one another, Alpha rolls down all the way to Omega, and again Omega returns to Alpha,

is folded back, so that the Lord might show in himself both the running of the beginning toward the end and the running of the end toward the beginning. [10] Now among the Greeks all the letters both compose words and make numbers. For the letter Alpha is called among them, in numbers, 'one.' But where they write Beta, it is called 'two'; where they write Gamma, it is called in their numbers 'three'; where they write Delta, it is called in

their numbers 'four'; and thus among them all the letters have numerical values. [11] The Latins, however, do not reckon numbers by letters, but compose words only, with the exception of the letters I and X, of which the latter both signifies the cross by its shape and denotes 'ten' in number. IV. ON THE LATIN LETTERS. [1] The nymph Carmentis first handed down the Latin letters to the Italians. She was called Carmentis

because she used to sing of things to come in songs (carmina). But properly she was called Nicostrate. Letters, moreover, are either common or liberal. [2] They are called common because many use them in common, as for writing and reading. They are called liberal because only those know them who compose books and understand the method of speaking and composing correctly. [3] There is a twofold class of letters:

for they are principally divided into two parts, into vowels and consonants. Vowels are those which are emitted variously by a direct opening of the throat without any collision. And they are called vowels (vocales) because by themselves they fill out the voice (vox) and by themselves make a syllable, with no consonant clinging to them. Consonants are those which are produced by a varied movement of the tongue or a pressing of the lips. And they are called

consonants because by themselves they do not sound, but sound together (consonant) when vowels are joined to them. [4] These are divided into two parts: into semivowels and mutes. They are called semivowels because they have something of a half of the vowels. For they begin from the vowel E and end in a natural sound (as F, L, M, and the rest). But they are called mutes because, unless vowels are placed beneath them,

they cannot break forth at all. For if you take away from them the final sound of the vowel, an enclosed murmur of the letter will sound (as B, G, D, and the rest). The ancients called vowels, semivowels, and mutes respectively 'sounding,' 'half-sounding,' and 'unsounding.' [5] Among the vowels, moreover, I and U have among the grammarians various values. [6] For sometimes they are vowels, sometimes semivowels, sometimes intermediate

they are. They are vowels for this reason, because placed alone they make syllables and are joined with other consonants. They are held to be consonants because sometimes they have vowels set after them within the same syllables, as in 'Ianus,' 'vates,' and are treated as consonants. [7] They are called intermediate for this reason, that by nature, when alone, they have a middle sound, as in 'illius,' 'unius,'

Joined to others they sound fuller, as in 'Ianus,' 'vanus.' For alone they sound one way, joined another. The I, moreover, is sometimes called double for this reason, that whenever it is found between two vowels, it is reckoned as two consonants, as in 'Troia'; for its sound is doubled there. [8] Likewise the letter V is sometimes nothing, because in some places it is neither vowel nor

consonant, as in 'quis.' For it is not a vowel, because I follows it; and it is not a consonant, because Q precedes it. And therefore, when it is neither vowel nor consonant, it is without doubt nothing. This same letter is also called digamma by the Greeks, when it is joined to itself and to other vowels; and it is called digamma because it is double, like the letter F, which has a double Gamma, to whose

likeness the grammarians chose to call joined vowels 'digamma,' as in 'votum,' 'virgo.' [9] Among the semivowels, moreover, certain ones are called liquids for this reason, that sometimes, placed after other consonants in one syllable, they fail and are excluded from the metre. Of these, two become liquid among the Latins, L and R, as in 'fragor,' 'flatus.' The remaining ones, M and N, among the Greeks

become liquid, as in 'Mnestheus.' [10] The old script consisted of seventeen Latin letters. Whence too they are named 'legitimate' for this reason, namely either because they begin from the vowel E and end in a mute sound, as the consonants do, or because they begin from their own sound and end in the vowel E, as the mutes do (and they are A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, L, M, N, O, P,

R, S, T, and U). [11] The letter H, however, was added afterwards for the sake of aspiration alone. Whence too by very many it is thought to be an aspiration and not a letter; and accordingly it is called the mark of aspiration, because it raises the voice. For aspiration is a sound more abundantly raised, whose opposite is prosody, a sound evenly inflected. [12] The schoolmaster Salvius first

added the letter K to the Latin alphabet, so that it might make a distinction in sound between the two letters C and Q; yet it is called superfluous, because except in the word 'Kalendae' it is judged unnecessary: for by C we express all things. [13] The letter Q neither the Greeks nor the Hebrews sound. For except for the Latins no other language has it. This did not exist before. Whence it too was called superfluous, because by C all things

the ancients wrote by means of C. [14] The letter X did not yet exist among the Latins until the time of Augustus (and fittingly at this time, when the name of Christ became known, was it written with that letter which portrays the sign of the cross); but in its place they wrote C and S, whence too it is called double, because it is put for C and S, and whence it has a name composed of those same letters. [15] From the Greeks

the Latin tongue borrowed two letters, Y and Z, namely on account of Greek names; and these were not written among the Romans until the time of Augustus, but in place of Z they put two S's, as in 'hilarissat,' and for Y they wrote I. [16] To each letter three things belong: the name, by which it is called; the shape, by which character it is signified; and the power, whereby it is held to be which vowel, which consonant.

By some, order is also added, that is, which precedes and which follows, so that A is first and B follows next. A, moreover, is among all peoples the first of letters for this reason, because it itself first opens the voice for those being born. [17] The peoples gave the names to the letters from the sound of their own language, having noted and distinguished the sounds of the mouth. For after they

had observed them, they imposed on them both names and shapes; and they formed the shapes partly by convention, partly from the sound of the letters: as for instance I and O, of which the one has, as it were a slender sound, so a thin stroke, while the other has a full sound, just as also a full shape. But nature gave the power, and will gave the order and the accent-mark. [18] Between the shapes of the letters and the accent-mark the ancients

made a distinction, saying that the apex is so called because it is far from the feet and is placed on the top of the letter. For it is a line lying evenly drawn above the letter. (The shape, however, is that by which the whole letter is written.) V. ON GRAMMAR. [1] Grammar is the knowledge of speaking correctly, and the origin and foundation of the liberal letters. It was discovered among the disciplines after the common letters,

so that now those who had learned the letters might through it know the method of speaking correctly. Grammar, moreover, took its name from letters, for the Greeks call letters grammata. [2] It is called an 'art' (ars) because it consists of the precepts and rules of art. Others say that this word was drawn from the Greeks, apo tes aretes, that is, 'from virtue,' which they called knowledge. [3]

Speech (oratio) is so called as if 'reason of the mouth' (oris ratio). For to speak (orare) is to talk and to say. Speech, moreover, is a connected sequence of words with meaning. But a connected sequence without meaning is not speech, because it is not 'reason of the mouth.' Speech, then, is complete in meaning, voice, and letter. [4] The divisions of the grammatical art are counted by some as thirty, that is: the eight parts of speech; articulate utterance,