in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 87 



that it never means very large, as asserted by Aulus Gellius. 

 The only words (with the exception of those already examined) 

 which he quotes as exemplifying the intensive form of ve, 

 are veheme?is, vetus, and vegrandis. But vehemens has the ve 

 short, and is derived from the verb veho, not compounded of ve, 

 aspirated into vehe, and mens, mind. In vetus, he is still more 

 unfortunate ; for, had it been compounded of ve and cetas, no 

 power could ever have shortened the penult. In reality, ve- 

 tus is immediately formed from the Greek zrog (a year), which, in 

 Homer, has always the digamma, fsrog. The Saxon expression, 

 " of yore," corresponds in meaning with the Latin vetus. The 

 only remaining word for which the intensive force of ve is claimed, 

 is vegrandis. For such usage two lines were adduced ; the first 

 from Lucilius, and to which Gellius refers. It is still to be 

 found in the first book of Nonius, n. § 34. 



" Non idcirco extollitur nee vitse vegrandi datur." 



But it is to be remarked, that Nonius having probably found a 

 better edition of Lucilius, quotes the same line in the follow- 

 ing manner, 



" Non idcirco extollitur vel ira? vel gaudii dator." 



The other example was supposed to exist in Persius, 



" Ut ramale vetus, vegrandi subere cootum."* 



But more manuscripts were found to have prtsgrandi, not ve- 

 grandi : hence it has long ago disappeared. 



Hence, my induction is complete, that ve never has an in- 

 tensive power, but has always the signification either of the ad- 

 verb parum, as in vesanus, or of the adjective parvus, as in vesti- 

 gium. 



