In another thread the word "ita" came up.
It occurred to me that ità was such a word because the gestures for "here you are" ("ecce") I imagine to be similar to "as follows" or "thus", and equally to resemble those for "especially", which is why the same word can have different meanings (or homonyms), no doubt. In other words, when you think about the body language of some words, the homonyms make more sense. That's my little idea. Can you suggest other words in Latin that conjure only particular gestures, or am I talking nonsense?Note that "ità " occurs a second time in this passage but with a slightly different meaning,— of degree, I think, where "ità vivo eo" could be translated as "especially (or 'all the more') with him being alive".
Nota quoquè ubi in loco "ità " secundò occurrit, ferè autem sensu simile sed, ut credo, hic sensu gradûs, ut "ità vivo eo" anglicè "especially (or 'all the more') with him being alive" verto.
Dum pensum quiddam aggredio, de quod manibus facere in loquendo linguam cogitabam,—brevì, de gestibus. Dictiones quaero quae quosdam gestus et manûs et vultûs et ullae aliae partis corporis suggerunt. Exempli gratiâ, exclamatio quaedam gestuum genera continuò requirit, ut supercilia scapulasque in levando est admirationis, ut os atque oculos latè aperiendo et caput retractando atrocitatis.
Alio in filo, usus "ità " adverbii tactus est. In mentem venit quod "ità " talis dictio est. Quòd similes sunt gestus ad "ità " atque ad "ecce" et anglicè ad "as follows" et ad "thus", non minùs ad "especially",—quamobrem una dictio potest sensus varios (vel homonymos) habere. Aliter dicere, cum gestus corporis considerabis qui verbos quosdam comitant, homonymi meliùs intellegentur. Ecce igniculus ideae meus. Potesne Latinè alios verbos suggerere quae solùm gestus speciales invocant, nisi nugas dico?