[5] My brother Lamprias, being of a scoffing, jeering nature, said: Since we are in a trifling humor, I can show that the Latin names of these meals are a thousand times more proper than the Greek;
δεῖπνον,
suppler, they call
coena (
κοῖνα διὰ τὴν κοινωνίαν), from community; because they took their
ἄριστον by themselves, but their coena with their friends.
Ἄριστον,
dinner, they call prandium, from the time of the day; for
ἔνδιον signifies
noon-tide, and to rest after dinner is expressed by
ἐνδιάζειν; or else by prandium they denote a bit taken in the morning,
πρὶν ἐνδεεῖς γενέσθαι,
before
they have need of any. And not to mention
stragula from
στρώματα,
vinum from
οἶνος,
oleum from
ἔλαιον,
mel from
μἐλι,
gustare from
γεύσασθαι,
propinare from
προπίνειν, and a great
many more words which they have plainly borrowed from the Greeks,—who can deny but that they have taken their
comessatio,
banqueting, from our
κῶμος, and
miscere,
to
mingle, from the Greeks too? Thus in Homer,
She in a bowl herself mixt (
ἔμισγε) generous wine.
1
They call a table
mensam, from
τῆς ἐν μέσω θέσεως,
placing it
in the middle; bread,
panem, from satisfying
πεῖναν,
hunger; a garland,
coronam, from
κάρηνον,
the head;—and Homer somewhat likens
κράνος,
a head-piece, to a garland;—
caedere
to beat, from
δέρειν; and
dentes,
teeth, from
ὀδόντας; lips they call
labra, from
λαμβάνειν τῆν βόραν δι’ αὐτῶν,
taking our
victuals with them. Therefore we must either hear such fooleries as these without laughing, or not give them so ready access by means of words....