12 CoLOEADo College Studies. 



votes. — Serv. ad Aeu. 8, 443, vates a vi mentis appellatos, 

 Varro auctor est. 

 Varro, L. L. VII 36, antiqui poetas Vates appella- 

 bant a versibus vieudis. 

 ostium. — Serv. ad Aeii. 6, 43, nam Vitruvius qui de archi- 

 tectonica scripsit, ostium dicit per quod ab 

 aliquo arcemur ingressu ab obstando dictum. 

 To use Thilo's words, falso Servius ostium, etc' Vitruvio 

 tribuit. 



II.— FALSE AND POPULAR ETYMOLOGIES. 



The great value of Servius' etymological notes is apjDarent 

 to every reader of his commentary. There are, of course, 

 many derivations offered which are no longer accepted, but 

 many of the words which he attempts to explain still defy 

 certain analysis, and in some of the cases where he offers two 

 optional etymologies for the same word each of these has its 

 supporters at the present day. In the following pages an 

 attempt is made to collect all his etymologies which may be 

 confidently rejected. It is hardly necessary to disclaim any 

 pretence to completeness of treatment where completeness of 

 treatment is practically impossible. At the same time this 

 paper professes to contain all Servius' etymologies (excluding 

 proper names) which, according to the highest and most re- 

 cent authorities, are no longer tenable. One word of expla- 

 nation should be added. In cases where Servius offers two 

 optional etymologies of the same word both are regularly 

 quoted, often without comment. Large as the following list 

 is, it might have been much larger, had it included all the 

 unnecessary derivations of Latin words from Greek, cases, /. e., 

 where the Latin word is at most cognate with the Greek, not 

 derived from it. In many cases Servius' statements as to the 

 exact relation between two cognate Latin words do not agree 

 with modern views. These too are regularly omitted, though 

 one or two extreme examples have been retained: fores, Aen. 

 1, 449 (quae foras aperiuntur); fundus, G. 2, 468 (rerum 

 omnium fundamentum). 



. As often as one of Servius' more remarkable etymologies 

 has been found in an earlier writer the passage is added below. 



