clxxxiii

argue, v.

Definition: to bring reasons; to reason; to dispute; to bring evidence, to prove;

[This English definition and all the rest this month come from the Oxford English Dictionary; the Latin definition as always comes from the Oxford Latin Dictionary]

Sententia: Eugepae, real Latin today! Cicero's In Verrem 5.63

erat ea navis plena iuventutis formosissimae, plena argentifacti atque signati, multa cum stragula veste.

That ship was full of most beautiful youths* [slaves, methinks?], full of things silver-made and marked [as in coins/other fancy silver goods], with many covering [elaborate] robes.

*A "iuvenis" is actually any man of military age: anywhere from about 18-45. So translating it as "youths" is a bit inaccurate, but English doesn't really have a suitable word for that concept, with even "young man" not stretching to 45 usually. So, I use "youths," because it sounds cool.

So, this is a part of In Verrem in which Cicero is bashing Verro, the former governor of Sicily, for sending a half-assed fleet out to defeat pirates. And actually, it is literally "half-assed," because Cicero accuses the fleet of being half-manned. Anyhow, Verro in his greed merely takes away the plunder, described in the sententia for today, instead of actually punishing the pirates. This selection is found, unsurprisingly, at the Perseus project.

"Argentum" is in fact used in the Aeneid, in Book 8 and all the odd books but 11. In honor of mol day, argentum (Ag) is also on the periodic table (10-23! A mol is 6.02 * 10^23 for those of you not yet in chemistry, blocked it from your minds, or forgotten it altogether). And actually, with respect to English derivatives, I am somewhat stretching the theme of English derivatives with these words. In fact, they are both derived from the same Proto-Indo-European stem *arg- , meaning "to shine, be bright, clear." Thus, "argue," essentially "speaking clearly," and silver, "shiny," come from the same root!

[the * means that the form is unattested, because obviously we do not have texts left behind from Proto-Indo-European. Hell, we don't even have overly many Latin texts remaining, much less records when people weren't even writing. You'd be surprised (or maybe not) to know how many ancient texts have been lost(case in point: Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, an amazing work of which only about 25% remains)]