[28]
Etymology inquires into the origin of words, and
[p. 125]
was called notation by Cicero,1 on the ground that
the term used by Aristotle2 is σύμβολον, which may
be translated by nota. A literal rendering of ἐτυμολογία
would be ueriloquium, a form which even Cicero, its
inventor, shrinks from using. Some again, with an
eye to the meaning of the word, call it origination.
Etymology is sometimes of the utmost use, whenever the word under discussion needs interpretation.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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