01-15-2010, 10:56 PM
Quote:So subtle that I am not sure I get it. Are you stressing that the "label" for a cuirasse was Thorax, as opposed to chalco-thorax, and lino-thorax applies to a species of the former?
Think of it like, for instance, the use of the term "machine gun" in English. Originally it referred to a gun that was automated. Today it has become a term to refer to a specific type of gun (though many different types of guns are now automated), but originally as a compound term it had something of a different, broader connotation, as the words used to make it were taken more literally. When the term linothorex is used by Homer, it is simply a compound word meaning "linen cuirass" - the word had no connotation of the form of the cuirass attached to it. However, in modern discussions the term linothorax has (erroneously) been used to refer to the form of the cuirass, which is usually referred to on these boards as the Tube and Yoke cuirass, and not just its material.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
