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The primary meaning of haurire is ‘to take by scooping, to draw’, and it is used of liquids and of solids which pour. The first section of this paper will try to show that this meaning is frequent and sometimes missed by the commentators. The second section will trace the development of other meanings showing that this root is not applied to drinking and swallowing, except metaphorically, until well into the first century A.D., except once in Livy.
1 8. 539; 9. 35; 13. 425, 426, 526; 14. 136.
2 Th. 2. 46, 3. 50, 6. 848, 10. 427; S. 5. 3. 223.
3 Similarly, this sense may well survive in 
, the cognate of haurire (cf. Schulze, W., Kleine Schriften, pp. 190–4), e.g. in
(Hom, . Od. 5, 490)
The easiest way to light a fire from a neighbour's is to take some in a shovel.
4 ‘at suaue est ex magno tollere aceruo.’ dum ex paruo nobis tantundem haurire relinquas, cur tua plus laudes cumeris granaria nostris?
ut tibi si sit opus liquidi non amplius urna, uel cyatho, et dicas, ‘magno de flumine mallem
quam ex hoc fonticulo tantundem sumere.’ eo fit,
plenior ut si quos delectet copia iusto,
cum ripa simul auolsos ferat Aufidus acer.
at qui tantuli eget, quanto est opus, is neque limo
turbatam haurit aquam neque uitam amittit in undis. (Hor, . Sat. 1. 1. 51–60)
1 Mr. R. D. Strachan of Peterhead Academy refers me to this interesting passage in Judges 7. 6.
2 M. 3. 189, 4. 740, 6. 347; F. 2. 294, 4. 314, 6.449.
3 But there is no need to take pectus in a strictly anatomical sense. It is the seat of mental activity frequently in Plautus, and cf. Ennius Sc. 23 V.2, Attius 47 R.2, and of poetic activity in Lucretius (see Munro's note) and at Lucilius 590–1 Marx, ex braecordiis ecfero uersum, and 610, haec tu si uoles per auris pectus irrigarier.
4 The nearest thing in Virgil is Aen. 1. 738, hausit spumantem pateram et plena se proluit auro.
5 This tells against the reading of C at Plaut, . Mil. Glor. 34, auribus peraurienda. Cf. Ps. 429 auditores auribus. Neither haurire nor haustus occurs in Plautus.
6 Cf. App, . Civ. 4. 136
1 Cf. Lucr. 3. 38–40.
2 Cf. Livy 39. 26. 7 and Tac, . Hist. 4. 5.
3 Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches Etymologisches Worterbuch3, s.v. haurio and see exanclare in the index to Ribbeck, Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta 2.
1 Verg., Aen. 12. 174 is an isolated exception, paterisque altaria libant.
1 Cf. nisi patrem materno sanguine exanclando ulciscerem. (Enn. Sc. 147 V.2)
1 Mrs. V. M. Wombwell of Newburgh Priory, Coxwold, writes: ‘A suckling bitch will turn and cuff her pups if weaning is not done soon enough, or if any of the pups are too greedy.’ Dr. A. Littlejohn of the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh, writes that a suckling bitch ‘will often mouth a pup without closing the teeth, making a snarling gurgling noise while so doing’.
1 This paper could not have been written without the articles on these words in T.L.L. vi. 3. 14. 2566 ff. by Professor G. O. Brink, who has also sent me a very helpful letter. An early draft of the paper was read at a meeting of Classics teachers in Aberdeen in Nov. 1963.
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