Ducentesimum Decimum Latinum Verbum Diei: May 31, 2010

[Christina Wallin]

Theme for this month: Miscellany

farrago, -inis f.

Definition: a mixed crop of inferior grains, etc. grown for animal
feed; (fig) a medley, hotchpotch, miscellany

Sententia: Juvenal Satire I.85-6

quidquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli est.

Whatever men do, prayer, fear, wrath, desire, joy, running about, is
the salmagundi/motley assortment of our little book.

Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, known in English as Juvenal, was a Roman
satirist in the first or second century C.E. His poems in dactylic
hexameter are in the formal literary style “satura.” With this form,
started by Lucilius, Juvenal criticizes the current actions and
beliefs of society, raising questions of morality. This passage comes
from his first Satire, and he is stating the extent of his work (that
is, everything).

In fact, in addition to being the best way to translate “miscellany”
into Latin, “farrago” is also a word in English! Etymologically, it
comes from “far,” meaning 'grain.' This word was likely rarely used
in the figurative sense by the Romans in classical prose at least, as
metaphors were avoided as much as possible. Nearly every time Cicero,
for example, used a word in a figurative way, he would apologize for
it by also adding a word like “quidam” or “quasi.”