[32]
I now turn to minor points concerning which
enthusiasts for etymology give themselves an
[p. 127]
infinity of trouble, restoring to their true form words
which have become slightly altered: the methods
which they employ are varied and manifold: they
shorten them or lengthen them, add, remove, or
interchange letters and syllables as the case may be.
As a result perverseness of judgment leads to the
most hideous absurdities. I am ready to admit that
consul may be derived from consulere in the sense of
consulting or judging; for the ancients used consulere in the latter sense, and it still survives in the
phrase rogat boni consulas, that is bonum iudices, “judge
fit.”
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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