Good day to you.
Fimus, merda, stercus. All Latin words for poo. But what do you call a turd in Latin?
I am unaware, M, what specific semantics you apply to ‘turd’ (indeed your distinction of it from Eng. poo is surprising). nonetheless, for your interest should it so incline, I append some notes on Latin defecation.
the most direct verb was caco, which exhibits the nursery school style syllable reduplication and no doubt had a rather immature origin. from it there are agent nouns cacator (inscr. cacatris) and desiderative cacaturio (cf. Mart.11.77), inter alia. it was a rather impolite form and accordingly was prolific in insults and slander (cf. Cat.36.1 for cacata carta).
as for nouns, excrementum was a typically polite rendering, though lacking in all specifics. merda was extremely common yet of rather impolite usage. it could, however, only be applied to non-human produce, which takes perhaps some of the force away from Mart.1.83.2 ut merdas edatis. more polite words were fimus and stercus. whereas the latter was the most general polite term, and could cover both human and non-human waste, fimus was in earlier Latin of a more specific use, originally referring specifically to oxen dung, though engaging in continual semantic widening, so that by Late Latin there was little difference between fimus and stercus. Cicero objected to the use of the word metaphorically, not so much on linguistic but rather cordial grounds: nolo “stercus curiae” dici Glauciam; quamuis sit simile, tamen est in utroque deformis cogitatio similitudinis (de orat.3.164). often in poetry stercus equated to mere ‘filth’, as in V.
if you are looking for specific terms, muscerda and sucerda are the respective produce of mice and swine. fabulus is the term used for a little nugget of merda, what one might call a dropping. at the other end of the spectrum, diarrhoea was typically rendered by foria (cf. Fr. foire) which seems to have in origin been a bovine condition. a more polite rendering of it was fluxus uentris.
in the most polite language, similar euphemisms to English were used, such as sedo, excerno (cf. excrementum), deicio, emitto, egero etc (cunire appears to equate with caco, and is low order).
in Late Latin laetamen was used of manure.
that is enough for now.
~D
I am in awe of your Latinity
Thankyou, Whiteoctave, for your reply which I will keep always. I too am in awe of your Latinity
I am unaware, M, what specific semantics you apply to ‘turd’ (indeed your distinction of it from Eng. poo is surprising).
The distinction I make is the distinction between what is countable and what is not. Between the actual lumps of poo and the substance itself. We may talk of three turds, but not of three dungs. Can you speak, for example, of tria stercora ?
I was about to post that stercora is a possibility for turd before I read this and burst out laughing.
I read that information last night, quite astounding.
J. N. Adams, why I didn’t know you posted on Textkit!
