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Chapter 4. The Authority of the King

Chapter 4. *med– and the Concept of Measure Abstract In historical times the root *med– designated a great variety of different things: “govern,” “think,” “care for,” “measure.” The primary meaning cannot be determined simply by reducing all these to a vague common denominator nor by a confused agglomeration of the historically attested senses. It can be defined as “measure”—not “measurement,” but “moderation” (Lat. modus, modestus)—designed to restore order in a… Read more

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Chapter 5. Honour and Honours

Chapter 5. Fas Abstract The existence of two derivatives in *-to-, Lat. fastus and festus, of diametrically opposite meaning, is sufficient to demolish the connection often proposed between fas and the group of fanum, feriae. It is perfectly evident that fas must be brought into connection with the Lat. fari (Gr. phēmi, IE *bhā-). Irreproachable from a formal point of view, this etymology requires semantic justification: how can a connection… Read more

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Chapter 6. Magic Power

Chapter 6. The Censor and Auctoritas Abstract If the Roman magistrate with specifically normative functions is called censor and if the senators whom he enrolls formally register their authoritative opinion by saying “censeo,” this is because the IE *kens– strictly meant “to affirm a truth (which becomes law) with authority.” This authority—auctoritas—with which a man must be invested for his utterances to have the force of law is not, as… Read more

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Chapter 7. Krátos

Chapter 7. The Quaestor and the *Prex Abstract Lat. quaero ‘seek, ask’ (whence quaestor, quaestus), a word without an etymology, has close connections with precor, *prex ‘to pray, prayer’ which must be pinned down: in fact it is not only in Latin that the two terms seem to form a redundant combination, as in the old formula “Mars pater, te precor quaesoque,” but in other languages too, derivatives from *prek–… Read more

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Chapter 8. Royalty and Nobility

Chapter 8. The Oath in Greece Abstract The oath, a solemn declaration placed under the guarantee of a superhuman power that is charged with the punishment of perjury, has no Indo-European expression any more than the notion of “swearing” has. Different languages have coined expressions which relate to the particular forms assumed by the ordeal which the taking of an oath involves. Notably in Greek, thanks to the Homeric expression… Read more

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Chapter 9. The King and His People

Book VI: Religion Chapter 1. The “Sacred” Abstract The study of the designation of the “sacred” confronts us with a strange linguistic situation: the absence of any specific term in common Indo-European on the one hand, and a two-fold designation in many languages (Iranian, Latin, and Greek) on the other. The investigation, by throwing light on the connotations of the historical terms, has the aim of clarifying the structure of… Read more

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Book V: Law

Chapter 2. The Libation Abstract The liquid offering, such as is denoted in Greek by the verb spéndō, spéndomai and the noun spondḗ, is defined specifically as the “offering of security.” Every enterprise that involves a risk, such as a voyage, a warlike expedition, but also a pact or a peace treaty, is thus preceded by a spondḗ. The notion of an insurance against risk, of a guarantee, is also… Read more

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Chapter 1. Thémis

Chapter 3. The Sacrifice Abstract The absence of any common term to designate the “sacrifice” is contrasted, in the separate languages and often within one and the same language, by a great diversity of expressions corresponding to the various forms which the sacrificial act may take: libation (Skt. juhoti, Gr. spéndō), a solemn verbal undertaking (Lat. voveo, Gr. eúkhomai), a sumptuous banquet (daps), fumigation (Gr. thúō), a rite of illumination… Read more

Book Chapter

Chapter 2. Díkē

Chapter 4. The Vow Abstract The root of Gr. eúkhesthai, Latin voveo, recurs in Indo-Iranian. Latin voveo, votum means specifically “the vow,” while Iran. aog– and Skt. oh– means “to pronounce solemnly or with pride”; but Homeric eúkhesthai is usually translated either as “to pray” or “to boast.” This polysemy becomes less surprising if we assign to the root *weghw– the double meaning of “vow”: a thing solemnly vowed, an… Read more

Book Chapter

Chapter 3. Ius and the Oath in Rome

Chapter 5. Prayer and Supplication Abstract Apart from *prek-, studied above, several terms meaning “to pray” have limited sets of correspondences within the Indo-European family. One dialect group consisting of Hittite, Slavic, Baltic, Armenian (and perhaps Germanic) present forms related to Hitt. maltāi– ‘to pray’; another group, Iranian-Celtic-Greek, all present terms made from the root *ghwedh– ‘to pray, desire’. Etymologists have been embarrassed by the divergence of sense between Greek… Read more