Secondly, What I have to say about derivatives not used in Latin writers, will be contained in a short comment on a passage in the Academic Questions of Cicero, where he asserts the rights and privileges of those who treat on philosophical subjects in a language not yet enriched with proper terms, and exemplifies his principles in the formation of a new derivative, an authority from which I apprehend no appeal will be made. The translation of this passage is as follows. The original is placed at the end of this article[1].
Varro.'You will allow me the same liberty which has always been assumed by the Greeks, who have long pursued these researches; that to unusual subjects I may apply terms which never have been in use.
Atticus.'Certainly: but if our Latin language will not furnish them, you may have recourse to the Greek.
Varro.'I am obliged to you; but I will endeavour to express myself in Latin, confining myself to such terms of Greek derivation as are already naturalized among us, as philosophy, rhetoric, physics, dialectics. I have therefore formed the new term Qualitas, to express the sense of the Greek word Ποιὀτης; which even among them is not a word of common use, but confined to the philosophers. In like manner, none of the terms of the logicians are found in the popular language; and the same is true of the terms of almost all the arts: to new things new names must be given, or those of others transferred to them. If the Greeks take this liberty, who have cultivated the sciences for ages, how much stronger is the reason it should be granted to us, in our first attempt to treat upon them!
Cicero.'It seems to me, that you will do a work of utility to the public, if you not only increase the stock of our ideas, which you have already done, but also that of our words.
- ↑ Cic. Op. omnia, Gronovii. Acad. Quest. L. i.
24.*** Dabitis enim profectὀ, ut in rebus inusitatis, quod Græci ipsi faciunt, a quibus hæc jamdiu tractantur, utatmur verbis interdum inauditis.
25.Nos verὀ, inquit Atticus. Quin etiam Græcis licebit utare, cum voles, si te Latina forte defcient. Bene fanè facis: sed enitar ut Latinè loquar, nisi in hujus modi verbis, ut philosophiam, aut rhetoricam, aut physicam, aut dialecticam appellem, quibus, ut aliis multis, consuetudo jam utitur pro Latinis. Qualitates igitur appellavi, quas ποιοτηζας Græci vocant: quod ipsum apud Græcos non est vulgi verbum, sed philosophorum, atque id in multis. Dialecticorum vero verba nulla sunt publica; suis utuntur. Et id quidem commune omnium ferè est artium. Aut enim nova sunt rerum novarum facienda nomina, aut ex aliis transferenda, quod si Græci faciunt, qui in iis rebus tot jam sæcula versantur, quanto id magis nobis concedendum est, qui hæc nunc primum tractare conamur?
26.Tu verὀ, inquam, Varro, bene etiam meriturus mihi videris, de tuis civibus, si eos non modo copia rerum auxeris ut effecisti, sed etiam verborum. Audebimus ergo, inquit, novis verbis uti, te auctore. * *
