Vipers and Electric Lights -- Out of the Darkness and Into the Light: Sixth Week

My word for this week is “dipsas.” Johnson defines this as a Latin word, from the Greek διψαν (dipsan), meaning: “A serpent, whose bite produces the sensation of unquenchable thirst.” We might more properly state that “dipsas” is a Latin word brought directly into English, both spellings being identical. Further, a correction to the etymology should be noted: the Greek word from which the Latin derives is διψάς (dipsas), therefore, the Latin is an obvious transliteration of the Greek. Moreover, the Greek likely comes from διψάω (dipsaō) meaning: thirst, thirsty or parched; rather than διψαν (dipsan) as Johnson explains. On to history and context.

 

Johnson's attributive quote is from Milton's Paradise Lost. Concerning the fall of Satan and his angels, Milton wrote:

                                          . . . thick swarming now

    With complicated monsters head and tail,

    Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena dire

    Cerastes horned, hydrus, and ellops drear,

    And dipsas . . . (Book X, lines 22-26; emphasis, mine)

It is quite interesting how this passage from Milton shadows a verse from the Hebrew Bible at Deuteronomy chapter eight verse fifteen. Here Moses is recounting the earlier event chronicled in the Book of Numbers, chapter twenty-one verses five and six. The Numbers account tells how the Israelites murmured against God, yet again, and God sent biting serpents among them and many died for their sins. The verse from Deuteronomy speaks of, “fiery (biting) serpents,” “scorpions,” and “drought.” Israel wandered about in the wilderness suffering many times because they refused to trust and obey God. They were in a place of suffering because of their sins. Milton paints a similar scene with Satan and his angels in a place of dire suffering because of their sins. Milton writes of the, “scorpion,” “asp” and “dipsas” among several other “dire” and “drear” things, describing the place into which Satan fell. Sin, Satan, sinners and suffering paint the passages from both Moses and Milton. 

Bringing additional weight to the comparison between Milton's and Moses' passages is that Jerome’s Vulgate uses the Latin “dipsas” at Deuteronomy chapter eight verse fifteen for the Septuagint’s Greek word δίψα (dipsa) and the original Hebrew word צמּאון (tsimmâ'ôn) and translated as “drought” in the King James or Authorized Version. The idea is first described by the Hebrew then the Greek translation. From the Greek comes the Latin as a transliteration which is then brought letter by letter into the English of Milton and subsequently recorded and defined by Johnson. The context of the words begins with a parched land, a land thirsty for the dew of heaven which begot a descriptive name for a snake that leaves the victims of its venom with an insatiable thirst. This progression outlines the history of word development: start with the common and well understood (dry land) then use the known to describe and name the lesser known by the use and value of association (dipsas, Coluber Viperas). 

So, what have we accomplished by this post? We have engaged in a very detail limited and space constrained word study. Despite the brevity of the work, it is still useful as an introduction – an introduction I hope will whet the reader’s intellectual curiosity of how words work across an interconnected web of differing times, locales and purposes.

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On a slightly different note, some may find the circumstances in which I began writing this blog post interesting – as they were quite Johnsonian. As Johnson surely did all the work of his lifetime without the aid of electric lights, so I began my work on this post. Johnson’s dearth of electricity was a product of his times, mine was the consequence of necessary repairs made to the meterbase and riser on my house. The local electric provider, FPL, had to shut off the power to my house and disconnect the lines running from the electric pole to the parts needing repair. The process began at nine o’clock this morning and power was finally restored about twelve hours later. Luckily, I did not have to spend the entire day without electricity – I was able to accomplish some of my work at a local library branch. Deprivation properly considered leads to gratitude, which is always a worthy lesson to learn.

Until next time. 

John

NOTE: Greek and Hebrew transliterations are placed parenthetically after the original words.