The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville

This work is the first complete English translation of the Latin Etymologies of Isidore, bishop of Seville (c. 560–636). Isidore compiled the work between c. 615 and the early 630s and it takes the form of an encyclopedia, arranged by subject matter. It contains much lore of the late classical world beginning with the Seven Liberal Arts, including Rhetoric, and touches on hundreds of topics ranging from the names of God, the terminology of the law, the technologies of fabrics, ships, and agriculture, to the names of cities and rivers, the theatrical arts, and cooking utensils. Isidore provides etymologies for most of the terms he explains, finding in the causes of words the underlying key to their meaning. This book offers a highly readable translation of the twenty books of the Etymologies, one of the most widely known texts for a thousand years from Isidore’s time.

STEPHEN A. BARNEY is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He edited and annotated Chaucer’s Troilus for The Riverside Chaucer (1987), and among his books are Word-Hoard (1977), Allegories of History, Allegories of Love (1978), Studies in Troilus (1993), and A Commentary on ‘Piers Plowman’ (forthcoming).

W. J. LEWIS is a translator and editor. Her previous translations include two works by Galen: Hippocrates on the Nature of Man and On the Elements According to Hippocrates, and she co-translated On the Properties of Discourse: A Translation of Tractatus de Proprietatibus Sermonum with Stephen Barney, Calvin Normore and Terence Parsons (1997).

J. A. BEACH is an independent classics scholar and senior documenter for a software engineering company. She worked for several years at the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae and continues to explore the relationship between classics and computer technology.

OLIVER BERGHOF is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at California State University, San Marcos and lecturer in humanities at University of California, Irvine. His previous publications include Georg Forster: A Voyage Round the World (ed. with Nicholas Thomas) (2000).

The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville

STEPHEN A. BARNEY,
W. J. LEWIS, J. A. BEACH, OLIVER BERGHOF

with the collaboration of
MURIEL HALL

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521837491

© Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach and Oliver Berghof, 2006

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2006

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data

Isidore, of Seville, Saint, d. 636
[Etymologiae. English]
The etymologies of Isidore of Seville / translated by Stephen A. Barney . . . [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 29) and indexes.
ISBN 0-521-83749-9
1. Encyclopedias and dictionaries–Early works to 1600. 2. Latin language–Etymology–Early works to 1800. 3. Didactic literature, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Translations into English. I. Barney, Stephen A. II. Title.
AE2.1833175 2006
032–dc22 2004061770

ISBN-13 978-0-521-83749-1 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-83749-9 hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

We dedicate this translation to
BENNETT AND JEANETTE LEWIS
ANTONIO
ANNABELLE BEATRICE BERGHOF
and
HILDEGARD, GREGOR, ALICE, and INES BERGHOF
THOMAS and PETER BARNEY

Contents

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to several friends for help with this translation. The Departments of English and of Classics at the University of California, Irvine, have given support of various kinds – special thanks to Professor Patrick Sinclair. The staff at the library, especially the Interlibrary Loan Office, at the University of California, Irvine have been unfailingly helpful. The anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press have provided a good number of emendations and wise counsel. For their advice on technical matters we thank Diane Lee Lewis (textiles), Hiroyuki Minamino (music), Fred Robinson (Old English poetry), Dana Sutton (Latin), Rod Wallbank (mathematics), and Sarah Wallbank (Greek). We are also grateful to Theodore Andersson, Cherry G. Barney, David M. Barney, Justin Hamlin, Michael Hanly, and Traugott Lawler for reviewing segments of our work in draft. We have gratefully relied on the learning and diligence of Muriel Hall, who in the process of copy-editing the volume became a collaborator in the project.

Note to the reader

This translation is based on the Latin text edited by W. M. Lindsay, Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi Etymologiarum sive Originum Libri XX (Oxford, 1911). Lindsay’s text remains in print from Oxford University Press (Clarendon), and is otherwise available in a facing-page Spanish translation (see Bibliography, Oroz Reta and Marcos Casquero, editors), as well as on the web and on a CD-ROM (see Introduction p. 27). The correspondence between Isidore and Braulio presented as an Appendix is also edited by Lindsay, and is found in early manuscripts of the Etymologies.

   Parentheses (round brackets) are used to set off the Latin word or English translation in question, and for brief explanatory notes or citations of texts. We set off parenthetical remarks by Isidore himself with commas or dashes. Hence, except for the Latin words, none of the material within parentheses is found in Isidore’s text. We regularly signal our explanatory additions with “i.e.” or “cf.” when the words might otherwise appear to be Isidore’s. We use square brackets only to enclose material likewise enclosed in square brackets in Lindsay’s edition, that is, wording found in some but not all of the manuscripts on which he based his text.

   Isidore left a number of items incomplete. These are signaled by three ellipsis points (. . .) in the translation. Ellipsis points are otherwise used only rarely at the beginning or end of Isidore’s quotations from earlier authors.

   We avoid using other than common abbreviations. Of cited works we abbreviate Vergil’s Aeneid, Georgics, and Eclogues, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as Aen., Geo., Ecl., and Met. We abbreviate “literally” as “lit.” On “gen.” and “ppl.” see below.

   We include the Latin for key terms. We also provide the Latin in those instances, the great majority, where Isidore presents an etymology that depends on the sound or shape of the Latin itself.

   Lindsay provided precise references to modern texts of the many authors whom Isidore quotes or cites. We have reviewed and updated these, referring in the first instance to the texts that appear in the Loeb Classical Library, and for other texts to the Oxford Classical Texts, the Teubner series, and other standard modern editions. A number of poets known only in fragments are cited from Edward Courtney, ed., The Fragmentary Latin Poets (Oxford, 1993). Isidore will often but not always name the author, less often the title of the work, when he quotes; the missing information appears here within parentheses. Where Isidore’s quotation differs from the modern received text the translation follows Isidore’s words, and the reference is preceded by “cf.”; for examples see p. 87.

   Often an oblique form of a Latin noun or verb gives a better idea of how an etymological relationship is devised than the usual nominative or infinitive form that we provide. In these cases we also give the genitive form or the perfect participle, abbreviated as “gen.” and “ppl.” Unless it obscures Isidore’s point, we give the usual spellings of Latin words in modern dictionaries, and supply clarifications when needed.

   Familiar biblical figures and places appear in their common English forms. Otherwise we generally follow the Douai-Rheims translation of the Latin Vulgate for biblical quotations, adjusting the translation when Isidore’s quotation differs from the Vulgate reading. We cite book, chapter, and verse from the Vulgate. Ⅰ and Ⅱ Kings correspond to Ⅰ and Ⅱ Samuel in the Authorized (King James; New Revised Standard) Version; Ⅲ and Ⅳ Kings correspond to AV’s Ⅰ and Ⅱ Kings; Psalms 10 to 145 correspond to AV’s Psalms 11 to 146.

   Isidore’s many repetitions of material are generally not signaled; these may be located by way of the Index.

   Two facts should be noted, as we have not repeated them in the many relevant places in the text. A good number of Isidore’s etymologies depend on the fact that the sound represented by b in Latin had by his time become indistinguishable for many speakers from the consonantal sound represented by ⅴ. Also, in Isidore’s geography, as was standard in the classical world, the land masses of the world (the orbis, which we translate as “globe”) were thought to be entirely encircled by the continuous body of water called Oceanus. We regularly translate this term as “Ocean,” with a capital O, and we use “sea” for other large bodies of water.