Ponderings from the Eclogues...
May. 17th, 2004 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly(aka Virgil's Bucolics)
Interesting word in the 9th Eclogue, umbracula. Umbra means "shade" and "ul" is a diminuative, so an "umbracula" is a "little umbrella". Which is a nice word for those pocket umbrellas (umbrellae?), especially ones where the ribs aren't made properly because of shoddy construction... then you have a nice vampire umbrella.
And in the 10th Eclogue we get this nice word "minio" which means "cinnabar"... the same wood miniatures were made of. They apparently aren't miniature because of the size but because of the color that they no longer have to be, in the same way that the canary is named after the island instead of the other way around (and the islands are named after dogs).
Anyway, we got chocolate. And now I gotta go. Djusk' a, djusk' a!
Interesting word in the 9th Eclogue, umbracula. Umbra means "shade" and "ul" is a diminuative, so an "umbracula" is a "little umbrella". Which is a nice word for those pocket umbrellas (umbrellae?), especially ones where the ribs aren't made properly because of shoddy construction... then you have a nice vampire umbrella.
And in the 10th Eclogue we get this nice word "minio" which means "cinnabar"... the same wood miniatures were made of. They apparently aren't miniature because of the size but because of the color that they no longer have to be, in the same way that the canary is named after the island instead of the other way around (and the islands are named after dogs).
Anyway, we got chocolate. And now I gotta go. Djusk' a, djusk' a!
