Another word-set shared by Italic, Celtic, and Germanic is that represented
by Latin laudo‘praise, mention (honourably)’; Old Irish luaidim‘I celebrate,
mention’,lóid‘song’; Gothic liuþo ̄n‘sing, praise’, Old Norse lióð, Old High
German leod, liod, Middle High German liet‘stanza’ (in the plural ‘song’),
modern Lied, Old English le ̄oþ. The semantic development from ‘praise,
commemoration’ to ‘song of praise or commemoration’ and ‘song’ generally
is easily understood. It is already apparent in Cato’s notice that Roman ban-
queters used to sing clarorum uirorum laudes atque uirtutes.^23
One of several Old Norse words for the art of poetry is bragr. Some favour
relating this to the root of Vedic brah-mán-‘priest’,bráh-man-‘prayer’, and
to Gaulish brictom, brixtia, ‘magic’, Irish bricht‘incantation, spell, charm;
octosyllabic metre’.^24 If they are right, a very ancient lexical item would be
implied. But the Brahman’s connection with poetry is contingent, and other
scholars uphold the alternative etymology that equates him with the Roman
flamen. We shall return to this elsewhere.
Within Graeco-Aryan we can trace the etymological connection of Greek
α, εδω‘sing’ with Vedic vad-‘speak, tell of, sing of ’ (specifically with the
reduplicated present va ̄ ́vadı ̄t i), and that of Armenian erg‘song’ with Vedic
arká-‘song of praise; singer’, Sogdian *ni-γra ̄y-‘sing (of )’, and Ossetic arg ̆aw
‘tale’.^25
Poetry as recallMore universal among Indo-European peoples than any of the above designa-
tions is the use, in relation to poetic activity, of words based on the root men
‘think (of ), call to mind’.^26 In composing a new poem or reciting an old one,
the poet must call to mind things that he knows. When someone who is
speaking or singing calls something to mind, it is at once expressed in words,
so that men may also refer to utterance, as in Vedic mányate‘think; mention’,
Lithuanian menù, miñti, or Latin mentionem facere.
The Vedic verb is used of composing a hymn, as in RV 5. 13. 2 Agné stómam
mana ̄mahe, ‘we think out a laudation for Agni’; 5. 35. 8, 48. 1; 8. 29. 10, 90. 3.
Themánas- or manı ̄s
̇
a ̄ ́- (mind, intellect) is engaged in the process (RV 1. 171.(^23) Cato, Origines (fr. 118 Peter) ap. Cic. Tu s c. 1. 3; 4. 3; Brutus 75; Varro, De vita populi Romani
(fr. 394 Salvadore) ap. Non. Marc. p. 77. 2 M. carmina antiqua in quibus laudes erant maiorum.
(^24) Mayrhofer (1953–80), ii. 452–6; id. (1986–2001), ii. 236–8; contra, P. Thieme, ZDMG 102
(1952), 126; cf. Schmitt (1967), 305; Bader (1989), 52–5.
(^25) A. L. Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin (New York–Oxford 1995), 86;
Gamkrelidze–Ivanov (1995), 822; EIEC 449a.
(^26) Watkins (1995), 68 f., 72, 73; Gamkrelidze–Ivanov (1995), 393 f., 713, 734 n. 3;
B. W. Fortson IV in Mír Curad, 138; EIEC 575.
- Poet and Poesy 33