Editing Classical Latin (section)

=== Etymology ===
Despite not equipped with modern linguistic knowledge nor the availability of [[Comparative linguistics|comparative linguistic]], ancient Roman grammarians and linguists still attempted to establish the relation between words and explore their origins. Varro preferred deducing the [[etymology]] by relating words with another Latin words,<ref name=":4" /> i.e. establishing words as [[Derivative (linguistics)|derivatives]] of other local words, e.g. he indicated “humilis” (humble) as a derivative of “humus” (soil), as both have a connotation of “low”.<ref name=":4" /> He also attempted to analyze words of cultural importance, such as the god ''[[Jupiter (god)|Iuppiter]]'', whom he analyzed as ''dies pater''.<ref name=":4" /> However, sometimes this method caused implausible results, such as considering that “solus” (soil) gained its name because the earth can “only” (sola) be trodden.<ref name=":4" /> On the contrary, Quintilianus criticized this approach for its counterintuitive result, such as relating the dark “''lucus”'' (grove) with ''luceo'' (to shine), or ''“ludus”'' (school) with ''“ludo”'' (play) as a school is “as far as possible from play”.<ref name=":3" /> In fact, he directly criticized Varro for relating “''ager”'' (field) with ''“agi”'' (to be done), and ''“graculus”'' (jackdaws) with ''“gregatim”'' (in flocks). Instead Quintilianus considered these to be a Greek [[loanword]] and an [[Onomatopoeia|onomatopoeïa]], respectively.<ref name=":3" /> Varro was also criticized for deliberately misspellings in order to suit his theories.<ref name=":4" />