the use of alter for one of three is plain. But we have also: Harum unam iuveni supremum maestus honorem And in like fashion we find: unum exuta pedem (4. 518) and: unum exserta latus (11. 649), where we have, not, it is true, alter for unus, but unus for alter. And thus we find alter, too, like inter, advancing from two to three, and apparently receding from two to one; for it is replaced by unus. Properly, in designating the members of a pair we should have alter ... alter, as in: alter istinc, alter hinc adsistite (Pl. Rud. 808). But often, as with Castor and Pollux, only one need be expressed, as in: in altera parte fluminis (B. G. 2. 5. 6); or the other is designated by a different word, as in: summus ibi capitur meddix, occiditur alter (Enn. Ann. 328); and so alter takes on the meaning of second', as in erus... et erus alter (Pl. Capt. 1005), becoming a preferred competitor of secundus that may imply inferiority, as we see in haec fuit altera persona Thebis, sed tamen ita secunda ut proxima esset Epaminondae (Nep. Pelop. 4. 3). We find it used for second in a series of three; e. g. primus alter... tertius (Aen. 5. 310 ff.) or: una... alter ... extremus (5. 563 ff.). Hence we get unus et alter 'one or two' and unus aut alter one or perhaps two', which in later Latin comes to mean the same as Cicero's unus et alter. While alius is not used as an ordinal numeral in union with other ordinals, alter is often thus used, as in: litteras quas mihi altero vicesimo die reddidit (Cic. Fam. 12. 25. 1). In: alter ab undecimo tum me iam acceperat annus (Buc. 8. 39) Servius is quite positive that the thirteenth, not the twelfth year, is meant, the twelfth being too far from puberty. ... Familiar is the reciprocal force of alius repeated, as in: ceteri verbo alius alii adsentiebantur (Sall. Cat. 52. 1), ut ipsi inter se alii aliis prodesse possent (Cic. Off. 1. 22. 7). When alter is thus repeated, and only two are in question, it sometimes has this force, as in: ut alter alterius iudicium non modo reprehendat, sed etiam rescindat (Cic. Cluent. 122. 43), but sometimes not, as in: consules primum religiones, deinde alterum alterius mors et comitia... impediunt (Liv. 41. 16. 7). But for more than two it is commonly reciprocal, as in: ut nemo memoria dignus alter ab altero videri nequiverint (Vell. 1. 16. 5), cum alter alterum indignaretur imperare (of four) (Capitol. Alb. 1. 2), omnes rediere . . . inconsideratae dementiae alter alterum arguentes (Amm. 31. 15. 15). As early as Lucretius we find the union alius . . . alter in: ex alio terram status excipit alter (5. 835), hic odor ipse igitur, naris quicumque lacessit, est alio ut possit permitti longius alter (4. 687-8). But this confusion was not felt in some phrases. We feel how different from altero die or alio die used for it in: servolos rogitabam ... item alio die quaerebam (Ter. And. 89)' on the next day', is alio die in: mox quasi alio die studebat (Plin. Ep. 3. 5. 11) ' as on an ordinary day', or confecto negotio bonus augur. . . ' alio die' inquit (Cic. Phil. 2. 83. 33) 'not to-day'. By altero die we mean 'on the morrow', 'on the day after', as in: altero die pervenit Caesar (B. C. 3. 30. 6), altero die quam a Brundusio soluit (Liv. 31. 14. 2). But in the Itin. Anton. (Plac. re. R. 30) alia die de natale domini is 'the day after his master's birthday', and alia die (Pallad. 9. 8. 6) on the following day'. We have alter for 'the neighbour' in: qui nihil alterius causa facit et metitur suis commodis omnia (Cic. Leg. 1. 41. 14), cave ne portus occupet alter (Hor. Ep. 1. 6. 32). Just as we have alterum tantum for as much again', we have alter ego for a second self' in: te me esse alterum (Cic. Fam. 7. 5. 1), and so alter idem in: est enim is quidem tamquam alter idem (Lael. 80. 21). But it is obvious that this may be carried too far; and just as from ad and salto we have adsulto, from ad and alter we have adulter, the too neighbourly' man. read in Festus: et adulter et adultera dicuntur, quia et ille ad alteram et haec ad alterum se conferunt (Paul. p. 22). Probably the alter in: fruitur nunc alter amore (Tib. 1. 5. 17), quam vacet alterius blandos audire susurros (Prop. 1. 11. 13) has much the same significance; for in late Latin alterare is used for 'to spoil', much in the same sense as adulterare. ... We noticed how alius is used as the opposite of idem, and in Virgil advances to the sense of par or compar. But in Horace we have alter used as the opposite of idem in: quotiens te speculo videris alterum (Od. 4. 10. 6). In late Latin instead of alius . . . alius we have alter ... alter as in: altera substantia divinitatis, altera humanitatis (Vinc. Ler. 13. 19), et aena et lignea et fictilia simulacra, et alterius alteriusque materiae (Prosper. in Ps. 113. 4). So for more than two alter becomes usual, as in alter adulescens decessit, alter senex, aliquis praeter hos infans (Sen. Ep. 66. 42), Et nunc ex illo forsan grege gentibus alter : ... cum alter maneret in Capitolio, alter in Palatio, alter . . . alter . . . alter (Lampr. Hel. 30 4). Hence we have the mixture in altera detur si similis tellus, aliaeque . . . exsurgant rupes (Sil. 12. 72-4), altera nox aliisque gravat plaga caeca tenebris (Stat. Theb. 8. 16). When we see the clearer and more definite force of alter in classical Latin, we need not be surprised that it proved the victor. And yet it was not always felt clear or forcible enough to give the sense 'one of the two', and we have often alteruter used for this. But in such a case, when it is repeated, it is expressed by alter only, as in: ne... alteruter alterum praeoccuparet (Nep. Dio 4. 1), aut etiam alterutrum, nisi terminet alterum (Lucr. 1. 1012). Sommer feels that -ter in alter is the same as -ter in aliter. Alter is for the old aliteros where, because of the two morae following ali-, the i has fallen out, while in aliter, the old neuter singular, there followed but one mora, the short syllable -ter; and he compares validus with valdē, where the i is lost before the final -de, the equivalent of two morae. Aliter is the same kind of adverb as we have in dulce ridentem laughing a sweet laugh', a cognate accusative neuter of the adjective. Osthoff accounted for the -ter in breviter as being contracted from itere, breviter being primarily brevi itere (Woelff. Arch. 4. 455); but Delbrück pointed out that the ending -iter in obiter and pariter must be connected with the -ter in inter, subter, and propter. Probably propter was originally propiter, and perhaps behind inter lies an older initer (cf. év); but the proclitic use of these words as prepositions would naturally lead to shortening as well as loss of accent, giving us propter and inter. Cette for *cedite Sommer thinks was shortened very much as was our 'good-bye'; he calls it an allegro form. Aliter looks like a starting-point for such adverbs as celeriter. Very clear becomes the sense of atque in union with it in: omnia plena pacis aliter, ac mihi Calvena dixerat (aliter) (Cic. Att. 14. 9. 3), and we see at once the force of aliter et in: si aliter est, et oportet (aliter esse) (Att. 11. 23. 1). Mela's aliter a ceteris agunt (1. 57) shows the way to Cledonius's velocius equus ab equo ' one horse runs faster than another'. Iterum, unlike aliter, has assumed the ending of the acc. sing. masc.; perhaps we may connect it thus: semel et iterum pervenire 'to reach one meal and then a second'. Its root is the same that we have in ibi (thereby) and ita; and iterum rogo is: 'I ask that second thing.' The other form itero, found in inscriptions, would stand naturally for iterum in ac primo quidem decipi incommodum est, iterum stultum, tertio turpe (Cic. de Inv. 1. 71. 39). Ceteri we are constantly using in et cetera, not seeing, as the Romans, too, failed to see, that ceteri was a contraction for caeieteri, the Roman equivalent of xai erepot and the others'. For repot the Doric arepoɩ seems the older form, being for smteroi 'the one party of the two' (cf. v for sem). In common use it is 'the remaining majority' as opposed to reliqui 'the remaining few'; but, as we shall see, there are many uses of it which show this to be a later and acquired meaning. We have cetera for alia in: ceu cetera nusquam bella forent (Aen. 2. 438-9) and alia for cetera in: and in : Inde alias animas quae per iuga longa sedebant Obstipuere animis alii, sed Troius heros. The spelling in inscriptions is at times caeteri. The form ceterus is not in common use, and the meaning makes this natural. In caetera multitudo and caeterum triticum the use of the nominative is easy, but caeterus vir would be impossible. Still we have masculine collectives; and Gesner1 cites: ceterus ornatus domi Pompeiis emptus est (Cato R. R. 22. 3), which I do not find in Keil's edition. Usually alius is used for it, as in: et alius exercitus ratibus iunctis traiectus (Liv. 21. 27. 6). Ceterum the conjunction, and cetera are got from the same construction as we have in: cetera Graius (Aen. 3. 594). 1 Gesner did not receive this into his own text of the Auctores de Re Rustica, but notices it there as a reading got from the notes of Politian, and adopted in the editions of Jenson and Jo. Gymnicus. X UTER-NEUTER-UTERQUE-NOSTER-POETASTER Or all words ending in -ter that arise from the dual, uter seems most puzzling in its formation. Clearly it should be cuter (old *quoteros, Att. TóтEpos, Ion. Kórepos, Skt. kataras), and we do find in inscriptions necuter (C. I. L. vi. 1527. 64), as well as necubi, sicubi, necunde, alicunde. Neuter, says Sommer, is a later formation, developed after the change of the old *cuter to uter (Lat. L. & F. Lehre, p. 469). Either, says Brugmann, we have a wrong division into nec-uter, nec-ubi, &c., aided by the presence of a uter 'one of the two', which appears as ater in Old Slavic, or the initial cu- was altered to u by internal phonetic change (Vg. Gr. II2, 2. 346. 3). phonetic change may be Brugmann does not specify. What this The change is We have already What is the relation between quis 'who?', and quis any one'? Clearly they are originally one and the same word; but quis 'who?' has an acute accent, which quis 'any one' has lost. old; for the same is true for the Greek rís and tɩs. noticed how ali- in aliquis lost its force. So numquis hoc dixit? plainly meant to begin with: 'now who has said this?'. The strong phrase accent on the first word is analogous to the strong initial stress accent on aliteros, which led to the loss of i and changed the word to alter; and in like fashion the quis in the second place is weakened in meaning and accent, and we get: 'Now has any one said this?'. Quis thus reduced becomes an enclitic, as we find it in aliquis and ecquis. The uter in neuter does not mean 'which of the two', but 'either'. So with the uter in uterque 'either soever'; but uter standing alone is usually which of the two'. Still, when we have uter repeated, the second does not mean 'which of the two', but seems to be the uter which Brugmann identifies with the old Slavic ater, meaning the same as alter. For in quaerere . . . uter utri insidias fecerit (Cic. Mil. 23. 9) or: ambigitur . . . uter utro sit prior (Hor. Ep. 2. 1. 55) the second uter has the same force as it has in: neuter utri invidet (Pl. Stich. 733); and we have a very close parallel to: si quis quid contra rempublicam ... |