THE LATIN VERB JUBERE. 345 



household, the verb jubere; this one cannot be suspected of 

 having any Grecian kinship, for there is nothing at all like it in 

 Greek, and it holds so important a place in the language that it 

 cannot be a borrowed word. Some think that we must go all the 

 way to India to find its place of birth, for Vanicek ("Worterbuch 

 der Lat. Sprache") traces it to the Sanskrit root judh, "to bind," 

 while D wight ("Modern Philology") is so hard pressed for an 

 etymology that he has recourse to the clumsy artifice of making 

 it a compound of the Latin words jus and habere. But even 

 although the root of the verb jubere could be satisfactorily 

 shown to exist in Sanskrit, yet the word itself is not there in any 

 form, and it is evident that the Aryan conquerors of India did not 

 bring it into Italy, nor did the Greeks. Who then ? Let us see. 



I. The meaning of the word. — Our dictionaries tell us that 

 jubere means primarily (1) to " say " that any one shall do a 

 thing, or that a thing may or shall be done ; hence it means (2) 

 to "order," and (3) to "prescribe or decree." In Latin such 

 expressions as, Dionysium jube solvere, jussi valere ilium, sperare 

 nos amici jubent, exhibit the earliest use of the verb, which is to 

 " say " or express a wish, to " say " something that has reference 

 to others, like the English verb bid in the phrases, Bid him 



farewell, we bade him good morning. If I am asked how this 

 mere expression of a wish developes into a positive order or a 

 peremptory decree, I have only to remember that the patria 

 potestas in ancient Rome was so wide and binding that a father's 

 wishes were the severest law to his children, and that this paternal 

 discipline, which had power over a son long after he had passed 

 the age of boyhood, so operated that obedience to lawful commands 

 became an essential part of Roman ethics, whether in the family, 

 the army, or the state. Hence those who had authority similar 

 to the jus patrium, as kings, civil magistrates, or military officers, 

 had also the same power vitce necisque which the XII. Tables gave 

 to the paterfamilias. Occasions on which this power was used 

 will occur to the recollection of every one who has read Roman 

 history. 



II. The form of the word. — If I now proceed to inquire what 

 is the parentage of j u b e r e , I find that the Keltic language in 

 its insular branch* (and the Keltic is old enough to be the parent 



* I divide the Keltic language into three branches, (1) Insular Keltic 

 (= I.-K.), spoken in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Highlands and 

 Islands of Scotland ; (2) Kymric (= C), the Welsh, the Cornish, and the 

 Armorican of Bretagne ; and (3) the Continental or Gallo-Keltic (= G.- 

 K.), such remains as we have of the Keltic once spoken on the Continent. 

 In referring to other languages, I shall use the following abbreviations : 

 S.=Sanskrit; H.=Hebrew; Gr.=Greek ; L.=Latin ; Fr.=French; G. 

 =German; A.-S.=Anglo-Saxon ; E.=English; K.=Keltic, in a general 

 sense as including the three divisions; P.=Persian; Ar.=Arabic. 



