The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

themselves significant; for not every
such group of words consists of verbs and nouns—‘the definition of
man,’ for example—but it may dispense even with the verb. Still it
will always have some significant part, as ‘in walking,’ or ‘Cleon
son of Cleon.’ A sentence or phrase may form a unity in two
ways—either as signifying one thing, or as consisting of several
parts linked together. Thus the Iliad is one by the linking
together of parts, the definition of man by the unity of the thing
signified.
XXI
    Words are of two kinds, simple and double. By simple I mean
those composed of nonsignificant elements, such as ge, ‘earth.’ By
double or compound, those composed either of a significant and
nonsignificant element (though within the whole word no element is
significant), or of elements that are both significant. A word may
likewise be triple, quadruple, or multiple in form, like so many
Massilian expressions, e.g., ‘Hermo-caico-xanthus [who prayed to
Father Zeus].’
    Every word is either current, or strange, or metaphorical, or
ornamental, or newly-coined, or lengthened, or contracted, or
altered.
    By a current or proper word I mean one which is in general use
among a people; by a strange word, one which is in use in another
country. Plainly, therefore, the same word may be at once strange
and current, but not in relation to the same people. The word
sigynon, ‘lance,’ is to the Cyprians a current term but to us a
strange one.
    Metaphor is the application of an alien name by transference
either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from
species to species, or by analogy, that is, proportion. Thus from
genus to species, as: ‘There lies my ship’; for lying at anchor is
a species of lying. From species to genus, as: ‘Verily ten thousand
noble deeds hath Odysseus wrought’; for ten thousand is a species
of large number, and is here used for a large number generally.
From species to species, as: ‘With blade of bronze drew away the
life,’ and ‘Cleft the water with the vessel of unyielding bronze.’
Here arusai, ‘to draw away’ is used for tamein, ‘to cleave,’ and
tamein, again for arusai—each being a species of taking away.
Analogy or proportion is when the second term is to the first as
the fourth to the third. We may then use the fourth for the second,
or the second for the fourth. Sometimes too we qualify the metaphor
by adding the term to which the proper word is relative. Thus the
cup is to Dionysus as the shield to Ares. The cup may, therefore,
be called ‘the shield of Dionysus,’ and the shield ‘the cup of
Ares.’ Or, again, as old age is to life, so is evening to day.
Evening may therefore be called, ‘the old age of the day,’ and old
age, ‘the evening of life,’ or, in the phrase of Empedocles,
‘life’s setting sun.’ For some of the terms of the proportion there
is at times no word in existence; still the metaphor may be used.
For instance, to scatter seed is called sowing: but the action of
the sun in scattering his rays is nameless. Still this process
bears to the sun the same relation as sowing to the seed. Hence the
expression of the poet ‘sowing the god-created light.’ There is
another way in which this kind of metaphor may be employed. We may
apply an alien term, and then deny of that term one of its proper
attributes; as if we were to call the shield, not ‘the cup of
Ares,’ but ‘the wineless cup’.
    A newly-coined word is one which has never been even in local
use, but is adopted by the poet himself. Some such words there
appear to be: as ernyges, ‘sprouters,’ for kerata, ‘horns’; and
areter, ‘supplicator’, for hiereus, ‘priest.’
    A word is lengthened when its own vowel is exchanged for a
longer one, or when a syllable is inserted. A word is contracted
when some part of it is removed. Instances of lengthening are:
poleos for poleos, Peleiadeo for Peleidou; of contraction: kri, do,
and ops, as in mia ginetai amphoteron ops, ‘the appearance of both
is one.’
    An altered word is one in which part of the ordinary form is
left unchanged, and part is recast: as in dexiteron kata mazon, ‘on
the right breast,’ dexiteron is for dexion.
    Nouns in themselves are either masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Masculine are such as end in N, R, S, or in some letter compounded
with S—these being two, PS and X. Feminine, such as end in vowels
that are always long, namely E and O, and—of vowels that admit