Institutio Oratoria

Our own writers have ventured on a few attempts at composition and derivation, but have not met with

Of the coining of words by expansion and inflexion we have examples, such as the Ciceronian [*](De Nat. D. I. xxxiv. 95. ) beatitas and beatitudo, forms which he feels to be somewhat harsh, though he thinks they may be softened by use. Derivatives may even be fashioned from proper names, quite apart from ordinary words, witness Sullaturit [*](a Att. IX. x. 6. Desires to be a second Sulla. ) in Cicero and Fimbriatus and Figulatus [*]( Metamorphosed into Figulus. Presumably refers to Clusinius Figulus, see VII. ii. 26. ) in Asinius.

Many new words have been coined in imitation of the Greeks, [*](See II. xiv. 2.) more especially by Verginius Flavus, some of which, such as queens and essentia, are regarded as unduly harsh. But I see no reason why we should treat them with such contempt, except, perhaps, that we are highly self-critical and suffer in consequence from the poverty of our language. Some new formations do, however, succeed in establishing themselves.

For words which now are old, once were new, and there are some words in use which are of quite recent origin, such as reatus, [*](The condition of an accused person.) invented by Messala, and munerarius, [*](The giver of a gladiatorial show.) invented by Augustus. So, too, my own teachers still persisted in banning the use of words, such as piratica, musica and fabrica, while Cicero regards favor and urbanus as but newly introduced into the language. For in a letter to Brutus he says, eum amorer et eum, ut hoc

while to Appius Pulcher he writes, le hominem non solum sapientem, verum etiam, ut nunc loquimur, urbanum. [*](ad Fam. III. viii. 3. You who are not merely wise, but, as we say nowadays, urbane. ) He also thinks that Terence was the first to use the word obsequium, while Caecilius asserts that Sisenna was the first to use the phrase albente caelo. [*](When the sky grew white (at dawn).) Hortensius seems to have been the first to use cervix in the singular, since the ancients confined themselves to the plural. We must not then be cowards, for I cannot agree with Celsus when he forbids orators to coin new words.

For some words, as Cicero [*](Part Or. v. 16. ) says, are native, that is to say, are used in their original meaning, while others are derivative, that is to say, formed from the native. Granted then that we are not justified in coining entirely new words having no resemblance to the words invented by primitive man, I must still ask at what date we were first forbidden to form derivatives and to modify and compound words, processes which were undoubtedly permitted to later generations of mankind. If, however,

one of our inventions seems a little risky, we must take certain measures in advance to save it from censure, prefacing it by phrases such as

so to speak,

if I may say so,

in a certain sense,

if you will allow me to make use of such a word.

The metaphorical use of words cannot be