Re: VMs: Fw: Arctos

["JH" <haleyj@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Nick

Oh I see! So what you are saying is that manuscripts written
in Latin never contained any Greek. Oh well that told me.
Except that I could probably find an awful lot of examples
very quickly that do. However that is not the case here. The
word Arctos appears in more than one Latin dictionary. At
the time of the VMS many Greek works were being recovered
either directly or via arabic sources. The words would already
have had at least an indirect Latin equivalent.

In Cassell's Latin Dictionary we have:
Arctos -i, f. (the greek was inserted here), the Great and Little
Bear: Verg., Ov.; hence (1) the north: iuncta Aquilonibus
Arctos <----- note Latin, Ov.; opacam excipere Arcton to be
towards the north, Hor. (2) the night: Prop.

Now from R. E. Latham's Revised Medieval Latin Word-List
we don't have Arctos but we do have arcturi.

Arct/uri (pl.), north c 870; articus, for -icus, extremity, (?) region
c 550; arotus, (?) star c 550

So the roots of north with a suggestion of the word star already
present in the word form date to at least 550 according to Latham.
 So where is the problem with Arctos?

Honest Jeff - Would you buy a used manuscript from this man?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Pelling" <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 15 May 2005 23:49
Subject: Re: VMs: Fw: Arctos


> Hi Jeff,
>
> At 22:57 15/05/2005 +0100, Jeff Haley wrote:
> >  BTW On page 13r I've found the word Arctos meaning also
> >Ursa Major, the great bear.
>
> That's true: but note that arctos is Greek, not Latin - so what's it doing
> in enciphered Latin?
>
> Just keeping you honest! :-)
>
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
>


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