The story of language is the history of human thought and ideas, and is at the core of D’Evelyn’s Liberal Arts experience. In this inaugural submission of “Tip of the Tongue” from our school’s Foreign Language staff we offer parents a brief glimpse into some of the insights that studying French, Spanish, or Latin generate for our students.
Foot Soldiers to the Fore
Latin 1 students learn the parts of the body, including pes, pedis (foot) which yields the common words pedal and pedestrian. In Latin 2, we observe how pes begat pedes, peditis, the term for an infantryman or foot soldier. Pedites were the sine qua non of Roman military success with cavalry, archers, slingers, etc. as a mere support. Consider that only Roman citizens might serve as infantry in the legions, while auxiliary troops were made up of allied non-citizens or subject people from past conquests. Students in AP Latin read Caesar’s account of the war in Gaul and hear frequent tributes to the ordinary foot soldiers who take decisive action that turns disaster into victory.
Looking Down on Pawns
As Latin morphed into its mediaeval incarnation and into the Romance languages, the connotations of foot soldier changed notably. Mediaeval conceptions of military virtue played up the importance of mounted land owners—knights, chivalry, and cavaliers dominated. The serfs who fought on foot or attended the knight were literally and figuratively looked down upon. Disdain is evident in derivatives of pedes such as pawn and peon. The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest use of pawn as the familiar chess piece, while by 1450 it takes on the sense of a minion, one who is used to do the will of others. Peon first occurs in English in the 1600s, again in the sense of footman, messenger, servant, or other lowly laborer whose work was accomplished on foot.
Pioneers Leading the Way
Pioneer, another derivative of pedes, has a brighter shine. First attested in English in 1523, a pioneer was again a foot soldier or laborer whose task was prepare a suitable road for the main body of the army. Armed with axes and shovels, they were literally road builders so that the heavy cavalry, artillery, and supplies could move without impediment. In 1605, Francis Bacon elevated the word pioneer from literal ditches to the figurative realm of exploration. In The Advancement of Learning, he wrote, “it were good to divide natural philosophy into the mine and the furnace: and to make two professions or occupations of natural philosophers, some to be pioneers and some smiths; some to dig, and some to refine and hammer.” For Bacon, the natural sciences and other disciplines it is the pioneer who blazes a path through his toil at digging and discovery. D’Evelyn’s hardworking students can start on the right foot, equipping themselves with essential tools to make their own path, not as minions and pawns, but as citizens and pioneers.
(Published in the October, 2014 Jaguar Tracks)
The PHurrowed Brow 