Chapter 21

Nouns are of two kinds. There is the simple noun, by which I mean one made up of parts that have no meaning, like γῆ, and there is the compound noun.

These may be made up either of a part which has no meaning and a part which has a meaning—though it does not have its meaning in the compound—or of two parts both having a meaning.

A compound noun may be triple and quadruple and multiple, e.g. many of the bombastic names like Hermocaicoxanthus....

Every noun is either ordinary or rare or metaphorical or ornamental or invented or lengthened or curtailed or altered.

An ordinary word is one used by everybody, a rare word one used by some;

so that a word may obviously be both ordinary and rare, but not in relation to the same people. σίγυνον, for instance, is to the Cypriots an ordinary word but to us a rare one.

Metaphor is the application of a strange term either transferred from the genus and applied to the species or from the species and applied to the genus, or from one species to another or else by analogy.

An example of a term transferred from genus to species is Here stands my ship. Riding at anchor is a species of standing.

An example of transference from species to genus is Indeed ten thousand noble things Odysseus did, for ten thousand, which is a species of many, is here used instead of the word many.

An example of transference from one species to another is Drawing off his life with the bronze and Severing with the tireless bronze, where drawing off is used for severing and severing for drawing off, both being species of removing.

Metaphor by analogy means this: when B is to A as D is to C, then instead of B the poet will say D and B instead of D.

And sometimes they add that to which the term supplanted by the metaphor is relative. For instance, a cup is to Dionysus what a shield is to Ares; so he will call the cup Dionysus’s shield and the shield Ares’ cup.

Or old age is to life as evening is to day; so he will call the evening day’s old-age or use Empedocles’ phrase; and old age he will call the evening of life or life’s setting sun.

Sometimes there is no word for some of the terms of the analogy but the metaphor can be used all the same. For instance, to scatter seed is to sow, but there is no word for the action of the sun in scattering its fire. Yet this has to the sunshine the same relation as sowing has to the seed, and so you have the phrase sowing the god-created fire.

Besides this another way of employing metaphor is to call a thing by the strange name and then to deny it some attribute of that name.

For instance, suppose you call the shield not Ares’ cup but a “wineless cup.”...

An invented word is one not used at all by any people and coined by the poet. There seem to be such words, eg. sprouters for horns and pray-er for priest.

A word is lengthened or curtailed, the former when use is made of a longer vowel than usual or a syllable inserted, and the latter when part of the word is curtailed.

An example of a lengthened word is πόληος for πολέως and Πηληιάδεω for Πηλείδου; and of a curtailed word κρῖ and δῶ, and e.g. μία γίνεται ἀμφοτέρων ὄψ.

A word is altered when the poet coins part of the word and leaves the rest unchanged, e.g. δεξιτερὸν κατὰ μαζόν instead of δεξιόν.

Of the nouns themselves, some are masculine, some feminine, and some neuter.

Masculine are all that end in N and P and Σ and in the two compounds of Σ, Ψ and Ξ.

Feminine are all that end in those of the vowels that are always long, for instance Η and Ω, and in Α among vowels that can be lengthened.

The result is that the number of masculine and feminine terminations is the same, for Ψ and Ξ are the same as Σ.

No noun ends in a mute or in a short vowel.

Only three end in Ι, μέλι, κόμμι, and πέπερι. Five end in Υ. The neuters end in these letters and in Ν and Σ.