The Story of Latin dcere

Alexander Nikolaev
nikolaev@fas.harvard.edu

0.

According to a widespread view (notably set forth in Benveniste 1969: 107109), the root *de- originally meant to show, to point out and secondarily developed the meaning to speak in Italic (Lat. dcere, Osc. dekum to say, Umbr. deitu announce). Benveniste argued that the use of *de- in the legal language played a decisive role in this process (cf. *medes-di- > Osc. medds(s) judge and *ees-di- > Lat. idex id.). Germanic cognates seem to support Benvenistes view (Mod.German zeihen to accuse). The purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative to the current orthodoxy, based on some hitherto unnoticed peculiar uses of *de- in several poetic traditions as well as some new etymologies. Preliminaries: the meaning of Latin dcere The verb dc is not quite synonymous with loquor speak, talk; rather, dc generally belongs to the solemn language of poetry and oratory where it becomes closely allied with can. Cic. Orat. 32 quamquam aliud videtur oratio esse aliud disputatio, nec idem loqui esse quod dicere, ac tamen utrumque in disserendo est: disputandi ratio et loquendi dialecticorum sit, oratorum autem dicendi et ornandi. Although a speech is one thing and a debate another, and disputing is not the same as speaking, and yet both are concerned with discourse debate and dispute are the function of the logicians; the orators function is to speak ornately. * Catul. 62 (a hymeneal, sung by young men and women alternatively) iam veniet virgo, iam dicetur hymenaeus. Hymen o Hymenaee, Hymen ades o Hymenaee! 5
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non temere exsiluere: canent quod vincere par est. 10 Hymen o Hymenaee, Hymen ades o Hymenaee! now will come the bride, now will be sung the Hymenaeus. Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen come O Hymenaeus! nor without intent have they leapt forth; what they will sing, it is our task to surpass. Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen come O Hymenaeus! This aspect of the semantics of dcere has been noticed before (e.g. Jahn 1867, Newman 1965); it provides a convenient starting point for the present inquiry since in other Indo-European traditions the reflexes of the root *de- are used in a surprisingly similar way. 2. 2.1 Indo-Iranian *da- (Vedic di-, Avestan dis-) While the meaning to show, to point out is amply represented among the Sanskrit reflexes of Indo-Iranian *da-, the verbal root di- is sometimes found construed with nouns meaning song of praise: RV 5.43.9 pr tvyaso nmakti tursya ahm p ut vyr adiki / y rdhas coditr matn y vjasya draviod ut tmn // I di-ed this homage to mightiest, victorious Pusan and to Vayu, who by their generosity inspire hymns and of themselves are givers of reward
*

Trans. Hubbell. Loeb translations have been used here and below, where available.

Nikolaev, The Story of Latin dcere Oxford University, 23 February 2012

RV 10.92.9 stma vo ady rudrya kvase kaydvrya nmas didiana / ybhi iv svvm evayvabhir div sakti svya nkmabhi // Today you should di- with reverence your song of praise to skillful Rudra, the ruler of men, and to those eager and devoted ones together with whom he comes down from the sky, auspicious, self-bright, providing protection
Note: evayvabhir nkmabhi eager, devoted are the Maruts

RV 8.102.13 (= KS 40.14.149.20) pa tv jmyo gro ddiatr havikta vyr nke asthiran // The sisters, who constantly di- the hymns of the oblation-bearer, have come to you in front of Vayu
Note: jmya sisters refers to the waters who appear in the next verse (cf. RV 1.23.6).

In these passages di- stma / nmakti / gra can be translated as show forth praise 2.2 This usage of the verb di- in the Rigveda may find a parallel in Avestan where the verb dasaiia- which normally means point out, show, appoint is once found in the meaning recite, transmit: Yt. 14.46 atm mrm m fradasaiii (Yt. 4.9: fradaxaii) do not dis- this mantra 2.3 Conclusion: in Indo-Iranian poetic language the root *da- could be construed with nouns meaning song, hymn, poetic thought. It was thus one of the roots referring to the symbiotic relationship between laudandus and laudator: it encoded the offering of song of praise by a poet (on behalf of his patron) to a god. Greek Like Vedic di-, Greek normally means to point out, to show, to direct. Nonetheless, a peculiar use of the verb is found in the melic poetry: Alcman 4 fr. 1. 48 Davies (= 57 Calame): ] [ [ [ .[.][.].[ P. xy 2388 fr.1 : Lobel : Calame and wonderful soft utterances they (Campbell: revealed) new to men ... delight ... intricate Alcman 59 (b) 3 Davies ( = 149 Calame) The yellow haired Megalostrata, blessed among girls, this gift of the sweet Muses

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Pindar I. 8.4748 (SnellMaehler8) And the voices of the wise the youthful excellence of Achilles to those who had been unaware of it Pindar fr. 32 (Hymn to Apollo, via Aristid. Or. 3.620) but in the Hymns when Pindar narrates the sufferings and change befalling men throughout time, he says that Cadmus heard Apollo correct music Bacchylides fr. 15.34 (Maehler) <> we must go to the richly-built temple (of Athena) and a delicate (song / dance) Philodamus paean to Dionysus (FurleyBremer) ( ...) 110 (The god commands) to this hymn for his brother to the family of gods, on the occasion of the annual feast of hospitality In these six passages from choral lyric poetry we find an unexpected use of the verb construed with a direct object meaning song, music, song of praise (, , , (= ), ( = song), ). individual solutions can be proposed for each passage, for example: 3.1.1 to show (as a ), 3.1.2 to teach (pedagogical function of the chorus), 3.1.3 to point out, etc or: the translation to sing, to perform can be adopted for all these passages in view of the Vedic usage above. The assumption that needs to be made is that - to show forth (a song of praise), an inherited terminus technicus of hymnic poetry, in Greek became employable with a wider array of terms (not necessarily related to praise) and spread to such choral genres as partheneia and hyporchemata. Conclusion: Greek / corresponds rather neatly to Vedic di- construed with song of praise (stma / nmakti / g) and the conclusion is nearly unavoidable that these two poetic figures share a common origin. We have thus reconstructed an element of Indo-European poetic diction.

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An additional argument: 7 2x Il., 6x Od., 4x Hes.: | (/ / ) || E.g. Il. 14.320 who bore the hero Perseus A plausible contextual meaning would be very famous (Hsch. ) (on - see Willi 1999). The morphological structure is more or less clear: as a parallel to a deverbal derivative in -- compare (-) famed, e.g. very famous or famed for ships (see Vine 1998). ut what about the root of this adjective? Root *de-: Schulze (1892: 242) suggested a metrically lengthened * sehr gegrsst (to receive kindly, Latin decus dignity). Problematic. Why should a hero or a divine power be described as someone who is wellreceived or very welcome? Against Schulzes theory: Doric proper name , found in epichoric prose inscriptions (12x; cannot be an itacistic confusion for -). Root *de-: Sittl (1880: 52) interpreted as vielgezeigt in the sense much pointed at with fingers and, somewhat similarly, Thieme (1938: 162) glossed the word as wer verdient dass man ihn dem Fremden zeigt. Not compelling. he Ditr-sprache provides a simple solution: () from *(-)de-eto- meant praised (in song), famous from well worth praising (in song). Latin dcere, praedcre and praec If the use of *de- with song of praise is so old, the possibility has to be considered seriously that Italic, too, has preserved this inherited phraseology and the rise of the meaning to speak in this branch could be connected to the poetic usage of *de-, rather than being seen as an innovation. Some uses of dc in Augustan poetry dc celebrate in song: Verg. G. 2.9596 purpureae preciaeque, et quo te carmine dicam Rhaetica? nec cellis ideo contende Falernis The purple and the precian? and you, Rhaetic how shall I sing you? yet even so, vie not with Falernian vaults! Hor. Carm. 4.9.1921 non pugnavit ingens Idomeneus Sthenelusve solus dicenda Musis proelia Great Idomeneus and Sthenelus were not the only men to fight battles that the Muses should extol Prop. 1.7.1-2 Dum tibi Cadmeae dicuntur, Pontice, Thebae armaque fraternae tristia militiae Ponticus, while you sing of Cadmean Thebes, and the bitter warfare of fraternal strife

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dc recite or perform a verse (cf. dicetur hymenaeus Catul. 62.4 above in 1.): Verg. Ecl. 6.5 pastorem, Tityre, pinguis pascere oportet ovis, deductum dicere carmen Tityrus, a shepherd should pasture fat sheep, but sing a slender song Verg. Ecl. 10.3 pauca meo Gallo, sed quae legat ipsa Lycoris, carmina sunt dicenda: neget quis carmina Gallo? A few verses I must sing for my Gallus, yet such as Lycoris herself may read! Who would refuse verses to Gallus? Hor. Carm. saec. 5-8 quo Sibyllini monuere versus virgines lectas puerosque castos dis, quibus septem placuere colles, dicere carmen when the words of the Sybil have commanded a choir of chosen virgins and chaste young boys to chant a hymn to the gods who are gladdened by the seven hills dc sing praise: Tib. 1.3.31-2 bisque die resoluta comas tibi dicere laudes insignis turba debeat in Pharia and chant your praises twice a day, with loosened hair, pre-eminent among the Pharian throng. Verg. Ecl. 6.6-7 namque super tibi erunt qui dicere laudes, Vare, tuas cupiant et tristia condere bella since there are more than enough who desire to sing your praises, Varus, and write about grim war Hor. Carm. Saec. 74-6 spem bonam certamque domum reporto, doctus et Phoebi chorus et Dianae dicere laudes such is the good and certain hope I carry home as chorus trained to sing the praises of Phoebus and Diana. dcere carmen, dcere laudes are strikingly reminiscent of Greek and Vedic di- stma and may well continue the same inherited formula SHOW (*de-) SONG. However, in order to become truly compelling, any such argument based on Latin will in addition have to appeal to material that is more or less isolated, thus with a chance of preserving something old.

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Evidence for isolated (and possibly archaic) *pra di- praise praedcre to praise, to extol: Ter. Eun. 564-5 Quid ego eius tibi nunc faciem praedicem aut laudem Antipho, Cum ipsum me noris quam elegans formarum spectator siem? Why now should I extol or commend her beauty to you, Antipho, since you yourself know how nice a judge of beauty I am? Note the decompositional simplex dcre to praise (Old Latin; later: to dedicate): Lucil. 1080 (Marx) sicubi ad auris fama tuam pugnam <prae>claram adlata dicasset wheresoever rumor that was brought to my ears praised your splendid fight

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praedcre is the only Latin verb of speaking compounded with prae- where the prefix has the archaic locative meaning recite in front of someone (contrast praefar or praeloqu with a temporal meaning precede someone in speaking). The -intensive praedcre is based on a prepositional compound *pra-dik-: *pra-dik- *pra-dik-n- > praec, -nis crier, auctioneer and derivative praecnium public announcement, auctioneers fee (both words show a syncope of the medial short vowel which was analogically undone in the verb). Some unexpected uses of praec and praecnium: praecnium solemn proclamation, poetry of praise: praeconia laudum / laudis (Ov. Pont. 4.8.46, [Tib.] 3.7.178), praeconia famae (Ov. Ep. 17.207), praeconia rebus Herculis (Ov. Met. 12.773), etc. Cic. Arch. 24 (~ Fam. 5.12.7) O fortunate adulescens, qui tuae virtutis Homerum praeconem inveneris Fortunate youth (Achilles), to have found Homer as a herald of your valor ( ~ Antip. Sid. 9.1 G.P., but praec Greek !) Conclusion: Latin *pra-dik- praise (+ laudem, etc.) = Vedic pr-di- (nmakti, etc.) A new theory of PIE *de- (of necessity highly speculative) The meaning of Latin dcere and its Sabellic cognates can now be accounted for in the following way: while in the colloquial variety of the protolanguage the root *de- had the meaning to show, point, direct, in the elevated language of hymns and prayers it was used in the idiomatic expression *dei- *gwh2 vel sim. to show forth [song of] praise. This is essentially the situation as we find it in Greek and Indo-Iranian which retained the basic meaning to show from the colloquial language and preserved the poetic meaning only in a few fixed expressions (- , di- stma). On the contrary, Italic greatly expanded the use of *de- with verbal complements, possibly generalizing the meaning to speak from some kind of elliptic usage, while the meaning to show remained fossilized in a handful of isolated forms (such as Latin index). Schematically: *dei- *gwh2?? to show forth praise ~ to sing praise (poetic register) (Vedic di- gram, Greek - , Latin dcere lauds) *dei- *ekws to utter (any kind of) words *dei- to speak > Latin dcere

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Tying up loose ends What was the origin of the PIE phraseological expression to show forth praise? In the end impossible to say, but the idea of directing or presenting a song of praise to a deity seems possible. Another possibility: show praise in the sense of reveal praise, cf. PIE *bheh2- to shine, to be visible (Vedic bh-, Greek ), whose transitive stem *bh--h2- make visible vel sim. gave not only Armenian banam open and Palaic part. panganz(i) appearing, but also Greek bring to light (note Od. 8.499 sang the song) and Vedic bhnati sings a song [for the gods] which in the later language simply means to speak. (However, *bheh2- is a particularly uncertain case because a root present with the meaning speak is abundantly attested: Greek , Arm. bam, Latin fri, etc.). What about Germanic *teihan accuse? This problem needs to be considered anew in the light of other evidence for *dei- used in the context of blame. Phrygian cursed, (60x in what seem to be malediction formulae). The handbooks mostly compare this form either to Old Irish tongid, toing swears (leaving the medial -- unexplained) or to Greek to brand (semantically suspect). Meister (1909: 318) was the first to compare to *dei-, positing a rather implausible meaning (zur Bestrafung) angezeigt (cf. Neumann 1988: 4: verurteilt). This etymology becomes unproblematic under the assumption that *dei-, used with verbal complements, denoted not only praise, but also malicious verbal assault. Hittite tekri- has been known to have a pejorative meaning; thanks to a recently published new text (KBo 50.73+Bo 3626), translation slander, gossip, derogation looks quite plausible (see Miller 2008: 121124 and Alexandrov and Sideltsev 2009[2011]). The text is very difficult, but one thing is fairly certain: the phrase tekrin tekrikezi clearly denotes a speech act of some kind. (Note the figura etymologica that is often found in IndoEuropean with verbs of speaking: Hittite memiyanus memai speaks words, Vedic astm amsa sing praise or English sing a song). The i-stem tekri- slander can be explained as a substantivized verbal adjective *de-ro- (cf. Latin dictum utterance). Conclusion: Germanic *teihan accuse, Hittite tekri- and Phrygian may all reflect the vituperative use of the root *de-. A new theory of PIE *de-, revised: *dei- to show, to point out, to direct (colloquial register) *dei- *gwh2?? to show forth praise (poetic register) (Vedic di- gram, Greek - , Latin dcere lauds) w 1) *dei- *ek s to utter (any kind of) words *dei- to speak > Latin dcere 2) *dei- *h1lenghos?? to show forth blame *dei- to blame > Gmc. *teihan accuse Phrygian cursed Hittite tekri- slander

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References: Alexandrov B. E. and A. V. Sideltsev (2009[2011]) Hittite weni, Revue dAssyriologie 103: 5984. Benveniste E. (1969) Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-europennes. Paris: ditions de Minuit. Jahn O. (1867) Wie wurden die Oden des Horatius vorgetragen? Hermes 2/3: 418433. Meister R. (1909) Die olischen Demonstrativa , , und die Partikel () im Phrygischen, IF 25: 312-325. Neumann G. (1988) Phrygisch und Griechisch. Wien. Newman J. K. (1965) De verbis canere et dicere eorumque apud poetas latinos ab Ennio usque ad aetatem Augusti usu, Latinitas 13: 86106. Schulze W. (1892) Quaestiones epicae. Gtersloh. Sittl C. (1880) Die Gebrden der Griechen und Rmer. Leipzig: Teubner. Thieme P. (1938) Der Fremdling im gveda: eine Studie ber die Bedeutung der Worte ari, arya, aryaman und rya. Leipzig: Brockhaus. Vine B. (1998) Aeolic and Deverbative *-to- in Greek and Indo-European. Innsbruck: Institut fr Sprachwissenschaft der Universitt Innsbruck. Willi A. (1999) Zur Verwendung und Etymologie von griechisch -, Historische Sprachforschung 112: 86100.