{"id":326,"date":"2020-05-11T20:31:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T20:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/?p=326"},"modified":"2020-05-12T01:45:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T01:45:36","slug":"searching-for-poeticism-in-latin-synonyms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/2020\/05\/11\/searching-for-poeticism-in-latin-synonyms\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Poeticism in Latin Synonyms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Close study of synonyms can reveal much about the language and thought of the ancient Romans, argues Beth Eidam (’20), using the example of words revolving around the concept of “shame”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Max Klinger, Shame (from the series A Love) 1887\u20131903. Metropolitan Museum, New York.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some words are innately more poetic than others. Imagine if Robert Frost had opened his iconic poem with \u201ctwo highways separated in a yellow forest.\u201d Swapping out just a few words for less lovely synonyms changes the entire tone. The line no longer reads like a thoughtful poem but rather a lost traveler describing their predicament. This is the power of vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Latin synonyms operate the same way. Ensis <\/em>(\u201cblade\u201d) serves as the poetic counterpart to prosaic gladius <\/em>(\u201csword\u201d), amnis <\/em>(\u201ctorrent\u201d) to flumen<\/em> (\u201criver\u201d), <\/em>and virgo <\/em>(\u201cmaiden\u201d) to puella<\/em> (\u201cgirl\u201d). Non-native speakers of Latin (which means all of us) naturally have a hard time hearing these tones and nuances without many years of reading. Modern data science, however, can allow us to immediately perceive and even quantify the level of poeticism in Latin words, thus allowing for a richer appreciation and understanding of Latin texts.<\/p>\n

Tessa Cassidy and I created a database of Latin synonyms based on Johann D\u00f6derlein\u2019s Handbook of Latin Synonyms<\/em> (1858), and then added frequency data collected over many years by a Belgian research project called the Laboratory f<\/em><\/span>or the Statistical Analysis of Ancient Languages<\/em><\/span> (Laboratoire d’Analyse Statistique des Langues Anciennes<\/em> or LASLA). Here is a typical entry in D\u00f6derlein\u2019s book, discussing the adjectives acer<\/em> (\u201ckeen\u201d) and vehemens<\/em><\/span> (\u201cvery eager\u201d):<\/p>\n

ACER; VEHEMENS. Acer<\/em><\/span> (\u1f60\u03ba\u03cd\u03c2) denotes eagerness in a good sense, as fire and energy, in opp. to frigidus<\/em>, like \u1f40\u03be\u03cd\u03c2): but vehemens<\/em><\/span> (\u1f10\u03c7\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2) in a bad sense, as heat and passion, in opp. to lenis<\/em>; Cic. Or. ii.49, 53, like \u03c3\u03c6\u03bf\u03b4\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2. (iv. 450.)[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Each synonym is listed with its Greek equivalent and additional Latin words that clarify its meaning when applicable, with English explanations and citations from Latin authors that exemplify the specific meaning he describes. Tessa and I took on the entries in the first half of D\u00f6derlein\u2019s handbook, each of us taking responsibility for one quarter of the whole book. My section came out to 546 words.<\/p>\n

We then used the LASLA\u2019s Opera Latina interface to query their database and find out how many times each word occurs in prose and poetic texts. LASLA\u2019s database is not totally comprehensive but is nonetheless extensive, containing 2,104,866 word forms, each carefully examined by a scholar to determine which dictionary headword (or \u201clemma\u201d) it derives from. This made sure, for example, that no instances of the noun acer<\/em> meaning \u201cmaple tree\u201d were mixed up with the instances of acer<\/em><\/span> the adjective meaning \u201ckeen.\u201d The LASLA data derives from 154 works by nineteen authors.[3]<\/a> With the help of LASLA\u2019s lemma search tool, Tessa and I gathered numbers on total uses, prose uses, and poetry uses in the LASLA corpus for each synonym. A sample entry from our data spreadsheet below illustrates how we organized our findings:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Doederlein lemma<\/td>\nLogeion lemma<\/td>\nLASLA 1<\/td>\nLASLA 2<\/td>\nLASLA 3<\/td>\ntotal count<\/td>\nprose count<\/td>\nraw poetry count<\/td>\nadjusted poetry count<\/td>\npoeticism score (0-1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ABESSE<\/td>\nab-sum, abesse, \u0101fu\u012b, \u0101fut\u016brus<\/td>\nABSVM<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n727<\/td>\n509<\/td>\n218<\/td>\n972<\/td>\n0.66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first column lists the form of the dictionary head word (lemma) as listed by D\u00f6derlein, the second a full dictionary form as found at the dictionary site Logeion<\/a>, the third lists the form or forms used by LASLA, followed by the numbers retrieved by searching the lemma(s) in LASLA\u2019s Opera Latina<\/em> database.<\/p>\n

The LASLA database contains more prose than poetry. 1,719,608 word forms derive from prose texts like Cicero\u2019s speeches, while 385,258 are from works, like Vergil\u2019s Aeneid<\/em>, written in verse. This discrepancy means that the frequency of words in the two genres cannot be compared by the raw numbers. To reconcile this difference, we multiplied the raw number of poetic uses of a word by 4.46, the ratio of total prose uses over poetic in the LASLA corpus. We then used this adjusted poetry count to create a \u201cpoetic score\u201d for each word. The score for every word falls between zero and one. A score of one indicates that a word is purely poetic and has no recorded prose uses in the LASLA corpus. The poetic score has allowed us to quickly identify which synonyms were used more often in poetry and which in prose; then the task becomes finding explanations for differences between synonyms.<\/p>\n

Although synonyms have overlapping definitions, each conveys a certain nuance and is more apt to be used in different contexts. Acies<\/em> basically means \u201ca sharp edge,\u201d but has a wide range of definitions, from \u201csharpness\u201d to \u201ckeenness of mind,\u201d \u201ca piercing look,\u201d even \u201cpupil of the eye\u201d; other extensions of the notion of \u201cedge\u201d have a military flavor, such as \u201ca single battle line,\u201d \u201cthe whole army,\u201d and \u201cbattlefield.\u201d Acies <\/em>is common, with 654 total uses in the LASLA corpus, evenly distributed in poetry and prose. Its poetic score of 0.50 does not indicate any special poetic or prosaic value. Its synonyms, though rarer in the corpus, have much higher poetic scores. Cacumen<\/em> carries a more specific sense of \u201csharpness\u201d with definitions of \u201cpeak\u201d and \u201csummit\u201d and has a score of 0.79. Acumen<\/em>, drawing on the mental nuance of \u201ccunning\u201d or \u201cwit,\u201d has a poetic score of 0.77. Here we see the generality of acies <\/em>diminishing its poetic score while its synonyms that have more specific senses to their definitions appear more poetic.<\/p>\n

This is a phenomenon I observed generally: the breadth or specificity of definitions greatly influence the poeticism of Latin words. Authors all have goals in writing, sometimes to make an argument or tell a story. Whatever the goal, authors choose language that helps achieve their goals. Poets write to convey very specific thoughts and evoke certain emotions, as such, synonyms with more specific qualities to their definition are more useful in poetry than more general counterparts.<\/p>\n

Iter <\/em>is a common word meaning \u201ca going,\u201d \u201cwalk,\u201d or \u201cway.\u201d These definitions can expand to \u201ca march,\u201d \u201ca legal right of way,\u201d and \u201cmethod\u201d or \u201ccourse.\u201d iter <\/em>is at home in military writings, legal speeches, and even Horace\u2019s poetic \u201cJourney to Brundisium,\u201d and scores 0.53 on our scale. The more specific synonyms are rarer and more poetic, such as Trames<\/em>, a \u201ccrossroad\u201d (only 29 total uses in the LASLA corpus compared to iter<\/em>\u2019s 958, but a poetic score of 0.89); and s<\/em>emita<\/em>, \u201cnarrow footpath,\u201d has a poetic score of 0.84. These synonyms were more valuable in poetry as they painted a clearer picture in the reader\u2019s mind than iter<\/em> with its broad range of definitions. Poets paint vivid images and express very specific ideas in their writing, so it makes sense that words with a stronger ability to convey precise ideas have greater poetic value.<\/p>\n

We can use this data to uncover the delicate differences between Latin synonyms for \u201cshame\u201d and clarify the role that these words played in both literature and the value system of Rome. Pudor<\/em> and its associated adjectives are the key terms for what we call shame. But the terms are culturally specific. According Robert Kaster, the Roman concept of pudor <\/em>\u201cdenotes displeasure with oneself caused by vulnerability to just criticism of a socially diminishing sort.\u201d[4]<\/a> This kind of shame is reliant on an internal sense of doing what is right and an external force holding individuals accountable. True pudor <\/em>can only exist with this balance of internal and external pressures. Without an internal moral compass one would only feel shame out of coercion, and without external standards to meet shame would just be a glorified form of self-regard.[5]<\/a> P<\/em>udor <\/em>is the force that pressures individuals to remain modest and decent, and also the shame that arises from immoral behavior.<\/p>\n

Pudor<\/em> itself has a score of 0.76, which reflects its relatively wide use in prose, compared to the highly poetic adjectival variant pudibundus<\/em> (1.0). Pudens <\/em>(\u201cmodest,\u201d \u201cbashful\u201d) is neutral (0.49). Pudens <\/em>represents shame as it is related to reputation.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 It is applied to individuals who have \u201ca due sense of what one\u2019s position requires\u201d (OLD). Useful in legal cases where character is often an integral feature of a defense or prosecution, pudens <\/em>is used frequently in Cicero\u2019s speeches (out of 34 total uses of pudens<\/em> in the LASLA corpus, 26 occur in court speeches of Cicero). In Pro Flacco<\/em>, a first-century BCE defense of Roman praetor Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Cicero employs the antithesis of pudens <\/em>and impudens <\/em>to question the morality of the selected witnesses.[7]<\/a> Cicero alludes to a rigged trial, calling the selected witnesses impudentes<\/em>, \u201cdishonorable,\u201d while many other \u201clearned and honorable men were not called to this trial.\u201d[8]<\/a> Cicero doubts the morality of the trial witnesses, and implies that they do not possess the personal responsibility that pudens <\/em>evokes. Pudens<\/em>, therefore, expresses the positive qualities of shame in its ability to produce responsible and respectable individuals. The utility of pudens <\/em>in legal cases might explain its poetic score of 0.49, the lowest of all the synonyms and the only one with a lower poetic score than pudor<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Seneca the Younger\u2019s play Hercules Furens <\/em>details the turbulent life of Hercules constantly battling Juno\u2019s hatred. At the climax of the play Hercules is driven to madness by divine power and kills his own wife and children. When his sanity returns to him, Hercules laments the carnage around him and begs his father, Amphitryon, and friend, Theseus, to explain what happened<\/p>\n

cur meos Theseus fugit<\/p>\n

paterque vultus? ora cur condunt sua?<\/p>\n

differte fletus; quis meos dederit neci<\/p>\n

omnes simul, profare. quid, genitor, siles?<\/p>\n

at tu ede, Theseu, sed tua, Theseu, fide.\u2014<\/p>\n

uterque tacitus ora pudibunda<\/strong> obtegit<\/p>\n

furtimque lacrimas fundit. in tantis malis<\/p>\n

quid est pudendum<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Why do Theseus and my father avoid my sight?<\/p>\n

Why do they hide their faces?<\/p>\n

Put off your tears. Speak out, who gave<\/p>\n

all my (family) to death at once \u2013 why are you silent, father?<\/p>\n

Then you, Theseus, tell me \u2013 by your loyalty, Theseus.<\/p>\n

Each man silently covers his ashamed face and<\/p>\n

pours out secret tears. What is shameful in such evils? [9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Pudibundus <\/em>(1.0) appropriately conveys the intense emotion of this scene in highly poetic terms. Since the adjective expresses a personal shame incited by displeasure in one\u2019s own actions it would be easy to assign it to Hercules, who will spend the rest of the play overwhelmed by shame and guilt. However, Seneca deliberately focuses on the shame of the onlookers. While Amphitryon and Theseus are certainly ashamed on Hercules\u2019 behalf, they are also displeased with themselves. Amphitryon has just witnessed the murders of his grandchildren. Theseus stood by as his friend descended into madness and compromised his honor. Their pudibunda ora <\/em>show the internal shame they will carry forever from being helpless to intervene. This shame is emotional, personal, and irreparable. The emotional weight of pudibundus <\/em>explains its only six total uses in the LASLA corpus, all poetic. Poets only employed pudibundus <\/em>when they wished to convey very specific, personal shame.<\/p>\n

Pudicus<\/em> (\u201cchaste,\u201d and \u201csubdued\u201d) is highly poetic as well, with a score of 0.94. It has connotations of sexual purity. It is applied to bashful and modest individuals uncomfortable in the gaze of others.[10]<\/a> P<\/em>udicus <\/em>could best be categorized as a derivative of pudicitia, <\/em>\u201csexual respectability.\u201d[11]<\/a> For Roman women especially, it was critical to preserve one\u2019s reputation by being pudica. <\/em>Conveniently, there were clear social guidelines in Rome on how to be a sexually respectable man or woman.[12]<\/a> If one simply obeyed social expectations and gender roles, pudicus <\/em>should be an easily maintainable label. The authors in the LASLA corpus who use it most often are Plautus and Ovid, which makes sense considering Ovid\u2019s often raunchy content. In the Amores, <\/em>Ovid\u2019s narrator seems unsure that women can truly be pudica<\/em>, but nonetheless asks that his interests at least feign that kind of modesty.<\/p>\n

Non ego, ne pecces, cum sis formosa, recuso,<\/p>\n

sed ne sit misero scire necesse mihi;<\/p>\n

nec te nostra iubet fieri censura pudicam<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

sed tamen, ut temptes dissimulare, rogat.<\/p>\n

Since you are beautiful I do not ask that you not err,<\/p>\n

but that it not be necessary for me, a wretch, to know;<\/p>\n

nor does my censure demand that you become chaste,<\/p>\n

but nevertheless, I ask that you attempt to not let it show.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

Ovid assumes that the object of his affection cannot truly be pudica <\/em>because of her appearance, but he does not seem to care. If her reputation is intact it does not matter what she has done. Ovid\u2019s concern further emphasizes that all kinds of shame in Rome were deeply intertwined with reputation and illustrates the role of external accountability in Kaster\u2019s definition of pudor<\/em>. Ovid declares that pudicus <\/em>is determined not only by one\u2019s actual actions, but by how others see and judge those actions. An individual can only be pudicus <\/em>if the public regards them as such.<\/p>\n

Another adjective meaning \u201cpossessed of shame\u201d is castus<\/em> (0.93). If pudicus<\/em> is in the eye of the beholder, castus<\/em>, as defined by D\u00f6derlein, refers to \u201cchastity as a natural quality of the soul.\u201d[14]<\/a> It is a cousin of careo<\/em>, the verb meaning \u201cto be free from,\u201d and castus <\/em>the much rarer noun meaning \u201cabstinence.\u201d[15]<\/a> Castus <\/em>includes the sexual implications of pudicus <\/em>but intertwines those nuances with personal character, not social reputation as pudicus <\/em>does. Not only is a castus <\/em>individual pure in a sexual sense, but they are clean of any moral stain by nature. In this way castus <\/em>is almost the perfect combination of the nuances of pudicus <\/em>and pudens. <\/em><\/p>\n

Ovid and Propertius employ castus <\/em>frequently, which is not surprising considering the focus of their poems on love and relationships. Propertius describes a happy couple in his Elegies<\/em>, \u201cO Postumus, [you are] blessed three and four times over in Galla\u2019s chastity.\u201d[16]<\/a> The poem continues to praise Galla\u2019s purity and inability to be corrupted in any way, even describing her as pudica <\/em>a few lines down.<\/p>\n

The value of shame in Rome was demanding yet vague. Individuals were expected to uphold a certain set of standards, but those standards could not be clarified by one word. The general nature of pudor<\/em>\u2019s definition begs for synonyms to clarify each facet of the value. Pudens, pudibundus, pudicus, <\/em>and castus <\/em>exemplify the value that nuance in synonyms had in literature, but they also reveal a greater poetic tendency to favor synonyms that convey a more specific sense of the general concept.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Johann D\u00f6derlein. D\u00f6derlein\u2019s Book of Latin Synonymes. <\/em>Trans. by Rev. H.H. Arnold. Andover: Warren Draper, 1858. 3.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Prose authors: Caesar, Cato, Curtius, Petronius, Plinius (the Younger), Sallustius, Seneca (Apocolocyntosis through De Vita Beata), Tacitus, Cicero. Poetry authors: Catullus, Horatius, Juvenalis, Lucretius, Ovidius, Persius, Plautus, Propertius, Seneca (Hercules Furens through Hercules Oetaeus), Tibullus, Vergilius<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Kaster, 4.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Kaster, 8.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> D\u00f6derlein, 34.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Pro Flacco<\/em>, 9.8.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Pro Flacco<\/em>, 9.8. \u201c\u2026docti, pudentes, qui ad hoc iudicium deducti not sunt.<\/em>\u201d Author\u2019s own translation.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Hercules Furens<\/em>, 1178. Author\u2019s own translation.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> D\u00f6derlein, 34.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Kaster, 9-10.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Kaster, 10.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Amores<\/em>, 3.14.3. Author\u2019s own translation.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> D\u00f6derlein, 34.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Thesaurus Linguae Latinae.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Elegiae<\/em>, 3.12.15. \u201cter quater in casta felix, o Postume, Galla<\/em>\u201d Author\u2019s own translation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Close study of synonyms can reveal much about the language and thought of the ancient Romans, argues Beth Eidam (’20), using the example of words revolving around the concept of “shame” Some words are innately more poetic than others. Imagine if Robert Frost had opened his iconic poem with \u201ctwo highways separated in a yellow … Continue reading Searching for Poeticism in Latin Synonyms<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1920],"tags":[138332,93513,153091],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-beth-eidam","tag-shame","tag-synonyms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/classicalstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}